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NOTES ON 

^OLONEL HENRY VASSALL 

(172 1-1769) 

HIS WIFE PENELOPE ROYALL 
HIS HOUSE AT CAMBRIDGE 

AND 
HIS SLAVES TONY ^ DARBY 



"There is so much that no one knows, — 
So much unreached that none suppose; 
What flaws! what faults on every page! 
When Finis comes" 



BY 

Samuel Francis Batchelder 

Cambridge, Massachusetts 
1917 



•(11/3 



1ST? ?'?T9f8 



[The following study is an amplification of a brief paper read 
at the meeting of the Camibridge Historical Society on January 26, 
1915, in the house of Major John Vassall (now occupied by Miss 
Alice Mary Longfellow) when the portraits here reproduced were 
first shown. It is now reprinted from Volume X of the Society's 
Proceedings. 

For these reproductions the author is indebted to the generous 
kindness of Richard Henry Dana, Esq., the purchaser of the origi- 
nals. He has since presented the latter to the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, under certain conditions for their transfer to 
the Cambridge Historical Society when it shfU have a suffiicient 
endowment and a suitable fireproof building for its collections.] 



COL. HEIiTKY VASSALL 

The Cambridge Loyalists or " Tories " have suffered a somewhat 
undeserved neglect at the hands of our historians, Numerous, 
opulent, cultivated, picturesque, and exceedingly interesting in 
themselves, they also form the outstanding figures in the village 
annals during the middle of the eighteenth century — annals 
which otherwise would be colorless to the vanishing-point. Eco- 
nomically they contributed vastly to the reputation and resources 
of the town, whole sections of which were opened up and brought 
to a high state of development by their wealth, intelligence, and 
taste. Politically they were the conscientious upholders of that 



6 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

realm of law and order against which their fellow countrymen 
saw fit to revolt, with results that long hung in the balance and 
that — had it not been for the unexpected folly of their leaders 
and the equally unexpected rise of a first-order genius among the 
revolutionists — might well have vindicated their position com- 
pletely. Meantime they operated as the flywheel on the over- 
heated engine of partisan passion, delaying and steadying its 
wilder impulses and preventing the ungovemed excesses into 
which it might otherwise have run. Socially and intellectually 
they brought to a primitive community, which had scarcely ad- 
vanced beyond the Elizabethan era when it was founded, the 
amenities, comforts, and ideals of the highest civilization of the 
day, and thus paved the way for that cultured elegance which 
was to distinguish the neighborhood for many years to come.^ 
In the thin and vitiated mental atmosphere that had felt no more 
stimulating influences than the meagre precepts of Harvard Col- 
lege (which itself was experiencing a time of weakness and change) 
they gave the first inspirations of a fuller and richer life. They 
were, in brief, the advance guard of those forces that have trans- 
formed the isolated, bucolic hamlet ^ into a complex modern city, 
at once eagerly progressive and curiously conservative. 

At the same time the scanty attention that has been paid to the 
Tories is not unnatural. Out of sight, out of mind ; and the less 
said about those into whose inheritance we have so coolly entered, 
the better. The adherents of a lost cause are soon forgotten 
amongst a democracy where success is the test and the justifica- 
tion of all things. Even the genealogist, struggling to ascend 
the local family-trees, passes by those temporary stocks that have 
left no scions among us to-day. Mostly exotic, they grafted them- 

* By an attraction that deserves a better name than coincidence, both of the 
most famous men of letters that Cambridge has ever claimed fixed their abodes, 
it will be recalled, in mansions built by the Loyalists. 

' The sympathetic student of pre-revolutionary Cambridge must bear con- 
stantly in mind the extreme diminutiveness of his field. The settled part of 
town was practically confined to the vicinity of Harvard College, and in 1765 
contained a white population with the easily remembered total of 1492. Thus, 
instead of standing as now fourth or fifth in order of size, Cambridge was then 
about fortieth on the Massachusetts list, overwhelmingly and apparently hope- 
lessly outranked by such important centres as Sutton, Scituate, Ipswich, and 
Rehoboth. The largest town after Boston was Marblehead. Cf. Benton, Early 
Census Making in Mass. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 7 

selves, as it were, upon the growing community, throve, multi- 
plied, and then, before the chilling breath of discord and revolu- 
tion, suddenly withered away and vanished, leaving no roots, no 
fruits, and only here and there an empty husk. The dead leaves 
of their records have been suffered to whirl off into limbo. Their 
fibres never sank deeper than the superficial soil of New Eng- 
land life. The native population, differing from them in religion, 
in occupations, in habits, in philosophy, and in politics, at first 
tolerated them, then distrusted them, and at last feared and as- 
sailed them ; and when they were extirpated spent nearly a cen- 
tury in obliterating their vestiges. 

Of all that ghostly company no members are more diflScult to 
trace, considering their numbers ^ and wealth, than the great 
family of the Yassalls. Like strange old-world galleons, they 
moored for a time in the pleasant summer waters of New Eng- 
land, enjoying and enriching themselves among the codfish; but 
with the first autiunnal northeaster they dragged their anchors 
and drifted helplessly away before the blast, the angry waves 
closing over their wake, marked only by an occasional bit of 
wreckage or a fragment of flotsam jettisoned to lighten a sinking 
ship. Many of their friends among the Massachusetts Loyalists 
played memorable and manly parts in the troublous sixties and 
seventies of the revolutionary century — some are still notorious 
for a precisely opposite course. JSTot a few of their native-born 
neighbors, humble and uncouth as they may have seemed in the 
eyes of those fine gentry, are to-day vivid national figures and 
familiar household words. But the name of Vassall in ISTew 
England is almost as if it had never been. A few stately country- 
seats, some musty court and registry entries, an obscure lane in 
Cambridge, a to^^Tiship in the Maine forests, some scattered stones 
in long-closed churchyards, and a monument in King's Chapel 
to a London ancestor are all that now preserve it from utter 
forgetfulness, Fc r anything beyond these mechanical and arti- 
ficial memorials, for any vital impression on the history of the 
time, for any tablet in the hall of fame (even in the Cambridge 
corner thereof), for any human interest, in legend, song, or story, 
we look in vain. 

^ Harris, the authority on the subject, enumerates no less than sixty-eight 
who bore the name in New England. 



8 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

The very personalities of the heads of the house have perished, 
or become dim and uncertain. Their letters and diaries are 
lost. Scarcely a scrap of manuscript survives to show us their 
characteristics and activities, intimacies and antipathies, hopes 
and fears. Up to the present time we have not even kno^vn how 
they looked. For though prominent members of the class that 
most liberally patronized the praiseworthy efforts of the Colonial 
portrait painters, their likenesses, numerous as they must have 
been, were either carried away in their hegira, or have suffered a 
variety of ignominious fates, scorned as " nothing but pictures 
of those miserable old Tories." The portraits of Henry Vassall 
and his wife Penelope Eoyall, auspiciously recovered within the 
past twelvemonth from a descendant distant in more senses than 
one, have therefore a value even more unique than that always 
attaching to the work of the master hand that painted them.-^ 

^ The exhibition of these portraits before the Society was the occasion 
for the preparation of this paper. Their history after leaving Cambridge 
appears to be as follows: 

From Henry Vassall's daughter Elizabeth, who married Dr. Charles 
Russell, they passed to her child Rebecca, who married in 1793 David Pearce 
of Boston, and thence to his son Charles Russell Pearce. While in the cus- 
tody of the last named, they were taken to Baltimore, about 182.5. Through 
his daughter Elizabeth Vassall Pearce, who married Mr. Prentiss, they were 
transmitted to his granddaughter Elizabeth Vassall Prentiss, who married 
Oliver H. McCowen. In 1914 Mrs. McCowcn, being about to remove from Balti- 
more to Burmah, offered them to the Cambridge Historical Society, and they 
were purchased by the president, Richard IT. Dana, 3d. They are now hung in 
the Treasure Room of the Harvard Library. 

The canvases of Henry Vassall and Penelope Royall are 25 by 30 and 
15 by 17% inches respectively. When received they proved to be in 
excellent condition, needing only varnishing and a little retouching of 
the backgrounds. That of Colonel Vassall represents a man in the prime 
of life, half-length, full face, slightly smiling, chin dimpled. He wears 
a powdered wig, ruffled lace neck-cloth, brown embroidered satin coat. The 
coloring is brilliant and the face full of character. The bust portrait of 
his wife is that of a young, sweet, refined woman, face oval, eyes large, 
features regular, brown hair dressed high with a rose on the left side. 
Her citron-colored dress is low cut. Neither in size, coloring, nor expression 
is this picture as striking as tlie other, and one cannot but feel that the 
subject did not appeal to the painter as strongly. 

Family tradition assigns both portraits to the brush of Copley. Mr. 
Frank W. Baylej', the leading authority on the subject, announces after 
careful inspection that tradition is here undoubtedly correct, and proposes 
to include both pictures in his catalogue of the works of that master. 
The style and handling are precisely those of Copley at the period when 
these canvases must have been executed; there is, moreover, documentary 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 



The biographer of these Vassalls seeks in vain to vivify his 
sketch with the warm coloring and well-placed details so happily 
employed by their limner. With the present materials he can 
but trace some faint outlines on a misty background. Certain 
names and dates stand out clearly enough.^ Henry Vassall's posi- 
tion among the far-flung branches of his family tree may be seen 
from the diagram appended. Bom on Christmas Day, 1721,'^ 
the fourteenth of eighteen children, of a fine old English stock 
long resident in the West Indies, he too seems to have lived, 
until nearly twenty years of age, on the great family estates in 
Jamaica. By that time his father, Leonard, and his older 
brothers, Lewis, John, and William, had already been for several 
years in Boston, doubtless attracted thither not only by its great 
commercial prosperity, but also by its superior social and edu- 
cational opportunities. Of these the boys had taken full ad- 
vantage. John graduated from Harvard in 1732 and two years 
later married Elizabeth Phips, daughter of the lieutenant gov- 
ernor. In 1736, to be near his father-in-law's delightful family 
circle in Cambridge,^ he bought there, from the widow of John 

evidence that he painted several others of the Royall family and their connec- 
tions. See Mass. Hist. Soo. Collections, vol. 71, page 284. 

Both the frames are old — possibly the originals (many of Copley's 
frames were made by Paul Revere) — and have merely been regilded. Copies 
of both portraits were made some years ago for Mr. James Russell Soley 
of New York City. An indifferent painting of Miss Elizabeth, aged about six- 
teen, is now in possession of Mrs. H. L. Threadcraft of Richmond, Virginia. 
Portraits of other members of the Vassall family by Hoppner and Reynolds are 
in Holland House, London. 

(Information chiefly supplied by Mrs. S. M. de Gozzaldi and Mr. R. H. 
Dana, 3d. See also notes, pages 13, 15.) 

^ For the authoritative data on the family history see the exhaustive < 
researches of Edward Doubleday Harris, The Vassalls of Neio Engrland — the ^ 
basis of this sketch — reprinted from N. E. Historical and Genealogical 
Register, xvii, 56, 113. 

^ The Phips family "were the pioneers of the Loyalist migration to Cam- 
bridge that reached its height about the middle of the century. Spencer 
Phips, adopted son of the fabulously wealthy Sir William Phips, bought a 
" farm " in 1706 that embraced all of East Cambridge and part of Cam- 
bridgeport, and soon afterward the estate on Arrow Street tliat became 
the homestead. His lavish hospitality, together with the distinguished al- 
lia,nce8 made by many of his children, who set up splendid establishments near 



10 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

Frizzell, the old mansion (now 94 Brattle Street), with about 
seven acres surrounding it, which thereupon became permanently 
associated with his patronymic. In 1741, shortly after the death 
of his father, he sold it to his brother Henry, then a lad just 
coming of age, who in this connection makes his first appearance 
on the local records, as " now residing at Boston, late of the 
Island of Jamaica, Planter." With the domicile went the " barn 
and outhouses," most of the furniture, a chariot, a chaise, and 
four horses. Included in the same deed were thirty acres of 
" mowing and pasture land " across the Charles, in the westerly 
angle between the river and " the King's Road from Cambridge 
to Boston." 1 

The house, we may note, was already of very respectable 
antiquity. From the infancy of the town, indeed, a dwelling 
seems to have occupied the site. It was a delightful location, 
pleasantly near the river, and just " without the walls " of the 
original pallysadoe that surrounded the first settlement, and that 
here followed the line of the present Ash Street. It thus formed 
an early example of a model suburban estate, combining easy 
access to the centre of society, business, and education at " the 
village," with a rural peace to which that centre must have 
seemed in comparison a bustling metropolis. Both mansion and 
grounds, as Henry Vassall found them, had been enlarged and 
beautified by successive owners.- He continued the process, 
rounding out the estate by further purchases ^ and building, 

him, proved a magnet that drew to Cambridge a large portion of its richest 
and most fashionable ante-revolutionary elements. Upon his death in 1757 the 
family traditions were well continued by his son David. 

* Middlesex Deeds, 43/271. About on the site of the present University 
Boat House. 

' For exhaustive (and occasionally confusing) details of the numerous 
changes in boundaries, construction, and ownership for over two hundred 
and fifty years see the articles by three generations of the Batchelder 
family, the proprietors since 1841, in New England Historical and 
Genealogical Register, xlv, 191; The Cambridge of 1776, 93; Historic 
Chiide to Cambridge, 94. From them the following reconstruction is chiefly 
extracted. The groimds are now cut up by modem streets, dating from 
about 1870, and are crowded with heterogeneous dwellings. The mansion itself 
has served for years as a " select boarding house." 

' In 1746 he bought from his brother John somewhat more than an 
acre on the westerly side, extending from the Watertown road to " Amos 
Marratt's marsh," and the next year the half acre on the corner of the 
Watertown road and the " highway to the brick wharf," as Ash Street was 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 11 

among other items, tlie east wing, with its elaborate interior finish, 
^nd along the street fronts the low brick garden-wall, portions of 
which still remain. 

The place, as he left it, differed so materially from its present 
shrunken and mutilated condition that some effort of the imagina- 
tion is needed to picture it in its palmy days. Let us approach 
in our mind's eye, that most accommodating of conveyances. The 
grounds extend along the road to Watertown (Brattle Street) 
from Windmill Lane ^ (Ash Street) on the east ^ to John Vassall's 
pasture (Longfellow Park) on the west. Tall hedges of flowering 
hawthorns mark the lateral boundaries. On the north front, 
just inside the wall, towers a magnificent row of five-score acacia 
trees. The house stands farther back from the road than to-day, 
for a ten-foot strip was clipped from the front yard when Brattle 
Street was widened in 1870.^ From the rear of the dwelling 
southward nearly to the ebb and flow of the river in its salt 
marshes * extend the famous gardens. We may saunter along 
their white-pebbled walks, edged with neat box rows, and admire 



also described. (Middlesex Deeds, 47/350.) By these purchases the eastern 
and western boundaries were completed as they have existed until recent times. 
Both transactions were doubtless connected with the Jamaica " deal " 
mentioned on page 36 herein. 

* Although frequently described as a highway, the present Ash Street was 
for generations practically a private way, separating the properties of Vassall 
and Brattle, and leading to land owned by the Marretts on the river bank. In 
1750, William Brattle, Henry Vassall, and Edward Marrett Jr. obtained 
favorable action by the " Sessions " ( then fulfilling the functions of County 
Commissioners) on their petition " Shewing that there hath between the Land 
of the said William & Henry been a Gate or pair of Barrs time out of Mind in 
the Lane leading to the Brick Wharffe in Cambridge, that there is a Gate now 
hanging in Said Place, they pray leave to continue the Same in the Same Place 
'till the further Order of this Court." Page 100, volume " 1748-1761," Clerk's 
Ofiice, East Cambridge. 

^ More nearly southeast, as north should be northeast, etc., but for 
the sake of simplicity the cardinal bearings of the old deeds have been 
followed in the text throughout. 

' On this " improving " occasion the acacias were sacrificed, and the 
brick wall was perforce taken do^vn. The part opposite the lawn was 
rebuilt on the new line, but this time capped by a granite coping instead 
of the two planks set in an " A " shape that formerly topped it. Opposite 
the house it was replaced by a high rampart of imitation stone, with 
entrance gate-posts, etc., in the fashionable taste of that day. 

* Mount Auburn Street of course had not then invaded " the marsh." 
The estate, however, seems never to have gone beyond the upland. 



12 THE CAMBEIDGE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

their choice shrubs, vines, and fruit trees, many, even to the great 
purple mulberry, imported from Europe. Under the willows at 
the foot of the grounds we may pause to drink from a fine 
spring. 

Along the western wing of the house a cobbled courtyard (now 
the beginning of Hawthorn Street) opens from the road. At 
the head of it, just clear of the end of the wing, stands the great 
stable, whence we hear the stamp and champ of a long row of 
horses.^ On the right of the court is the coach-house, shelter- 
ing " the coach, the charriott, the chaise, the curricle, the old 
curricle," ^ and other vehicular precursors of the limousine and 
the motorcycle. Here also we may curiously inspect the owner's 
private fire-engine, the first machine of the kind in Cambridge 
annals, and a striking illustration of the complete and costly 
style in which the family establishment was maintained.'^ 

This western wing is the most ancient portion of the fabric, 
as we may infer from its huge chimney-stack laid in clay instead 
of mortar, and its low rooms finished with plaster made of cal- 
cined oyster shells, — carrying us back to the days of makeshifts 
for proper lime. Its southward extension is continued by a 
long ell* (now much shortened), containing kitchen, "well 
room," garden shed, and other " offices," some floored with mother 
earth, some with hexagonal sections of tree trunks — an early 
example of wood-block paving. Although we evidently have here 
the strictly domestic side of the building, the whole house, elabo- 

' A memorandum in the little account Iwok later described gives the 
heights of ten horses by name — " Ruggles," " Lechmere," " Boy," etc. Two of 
them were ponies. In 1758 Henry Vassall had so many horses that he could 
not accommodate them all, and had to pay Gershom Flagg " on acct. of rent 
for Stable £45." 

^ Inventory of 1769. See Appendix A. 

^ It was so much admired that there was some talk of its being " improved 
for the town's use; " but the proposition was finally negatived by the March 
meeting of 1755, the conservative ma.jority plainly preferring to put their 
trust in the good old bucket-line rather than in any new-fangled notions. 
Paige, History of Cambridge, 134. 

The Colonel's elaborate forehandedness was later imitated by his brother- 
in-law, young Isaac Royall. The latter's inventory of 1778 gives " Fire Engine 
£250," with sundry entries for '• time spent about ye Engine to get it 
mended and cleaned." Middlesex Probate, No. 19546, Old Series. 

* A sketch plan of about 1875 gives the total length of the west side as 
ninety-one feet, of the north front sixty-three feet. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 13 

rate and extensive as it is, bears the character of the true home- 
stead.-^ It sets low on the ground. Its main roofs, crowned by 
a small cupola in the middle, are of the good old gambrel type. 
Its outer walls are mostly covered with " rough cast " or stucco, 
a logical finish for their interior construction of oak beams filled 
in with brick. Even some of the partitions, on account of the 
successive enlargements of the edifice, are of solid masonry. 

On entering we find that these enlargements have produced 
a rambling arrangement of rooms very different from the four- 
square primness of the typical " Colonial mansion " to which 
we are accustomed. The ground plan is like a broad, squat letter 
U, opening to the south. Parallel eastern and western wings 
of different periods enclose between them the great dining room, 
which occupies the entire middle section, and thus abruptly bisects 
the usual " long entry " from the eastern to the western door. 
The chambers of the second floor follow the same curious arrange- 
ment. To reach them there are three separate staircases. That 
of the eastern wing is still one of the handsomest examples of 
Colonial woodwork to be seen in Cambridge. The apartments 
are known, according to their rich and diversified finish, as " the 
blue room," " the best room," " the marble chamber," " the green 
chamber," " the cedar chamber," etc. The rooms are filled with 
pictures; even the walls of the entries and staircases are covered 
with them.^ 

In the library is a large collection of standard and current 
books. There is fine old mahogany furniture a-plenty, blue-and- 

^ From the date of buying the house Henry Vassall apparently never had 
any other domicile. Many of the Cambridge Tories regarded the village 
as a summer resort only, and retired in winter to their fine Boston dwellings. 
The Colonel's brother William had an especially magnificent estate in the 
metropolis, and his nephew John was constantly buying new property 
there. But he himself, either from choice or necessity, made no further 
purchases, and settled down for life on his compact and handsome possessions 
in the university town. 

^ The inventory of 1760 gives a hundred and fifty. "In the best room" 
were " three family pictures." Two were doubtless those of the Colonel 
and his wife, already mentioned, and the third that of their daughter 
Elizabeth. This inventory, it must be remembered, was that of a de- 
ceased bankrupt who had run through most of his property, and hence 
represents only a remnant of the full personal estate. It gives, for in- 
stance, only " 2 horses, old," where a dozen years before there were ten. See 
Appendix A. Xinety-one pictures were left in 1778. (Appendix B.) 



14 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

white china, and an imposing array of plate — over six hundred 
ounces. There is fine old joinery too, balusters, panels, wainscot, 
carving. But such evidences of wealth and taste, common to 
^11 the more luxurious dwellings of the time, are not particularly 
characteristic of the place. What most strikes the observer even 
to-day is its flavor of the native soil — its true *' Old Cambridge " 
air — that so contrasts it with its loftier, newer, more sumptuous 
and formal neighbor across the road. The latter was built " all 
of a piece " in 1759 by young John Vassall, son of our Henry's 
brother John already mentioned. A tradition of delicious mys- 
tery connects the two houses by a secret underground passage. 
A bricked-up arch in Colonel Henry's cellar wall appears to be 
the foundation of both the tradition and that part of the build- 
ing. We may assume, from what we know of the owner, that 
the feature was much more probably the entrance to a wine 
Tault. Although this primitive " subway " has caved in under 
the prodding of modern investigation, the touch of romance in- 
dispensable for a historic mansion was supplied, up to living 
memory, by an absolutely authentic secret recess closed by a 
sliding panel. Since the " secret " of its location — by the fire- 
place in one of the oldest rooms — was as usual public property, 
there was, naturally, nothing in it. Even the appropriate legend 
which by all the unities should have lingered there has long since 
slipped away to join the majority of the family traditions in 
oblivion. 

II 

Such was the home to which young Harry Vassall brought his 
bride. For as soon as the place was ready he married, January 
28, 1742, Penelope, daughter of the immensely wealthy old Isaac 
Royall.^ That magnate, like his wife (Elizabeth Eliot ^), was 

^ For a full account of this family see Harris, " The New England Royalla," 
7f. E. Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxix, 348. 

' She was a daughter of Asaph Eliot of Boston. By a previous marriage 
with John Brown of Antigua she had had a daughter Ann, who married Robert 
Oliver of the same island, and became the mother of Thomas and Elizabeth 
Oliver. The last two married respectively Elizabeth and John Jr.. children of 
John Vassall Sen., brother of Henry Vassall, who married Penelope, daughter 
of Mrs. Royall by her second husband. The relationships thus established be- 
tween Royalls, Olivers, and Vassalls, enough to dizzy the most indurated gene- 



I 



I 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 15 

of good Massachusetts stock, but had spent most of his life ou a 
rich sugar plantation which he had early purchased in Antigua, "in 
the Popeshead Division," ^ and from which he derived a princely 
income. There Penelope was bom, September, 1724. Amid 
the enervating influences of the social life on that little island 
(just the size of Martha's Vineyard), where rum was cheaper than 
water,2 where sybaritic luxury rubbed elbows with demoralizing 
primitiveness,^ where the blacks outnumbered their masters al- 
most ten to one, she passed her childhood — much, we may 
imagine, as her husband had passed his. In 1737 the family 
returned to Boston (though her brother, young Isaac, had been 
sent back several years earlier for his schooling),^ and she found 
herself in a very different environment. From that date we 
have occasional references ^ to her of a pleasant, homely kind : 

alogist, are only typical of those which interwove the whole group of Cam- 
bridge Tories into an indistinguishable mass of cousins and " in-laws." 

^ See early maps in Oliver, History of Antigua. The location was on the 
northern shore of the island, near " Eoyall's Bay." 

^ " This island is almost destitute of fresh springs . . . only two worthy 
of notice, therefore the water principally used is rain. ... In dry seasons, 
an article of such vast consumption must necessarily be scarce and dear; 
I have been informed that rum and wine have been given in exchange for 
it." Luffman, Brief Account of Antigua, 61. 

' " The tables of the opulent, and also of many who can very ill aflford 
it, are covered with a profusion known only in this part of the world; 
their attendants numerous, but it is not uncommon to see them waiting 
almost destitute of clothing, and the little they have mere rags. ... A 
few days since, being invited to a tea-drinking party, where was collected 
from ten to a dozen ladies and gentlemen, a stout negroe fellow waited, 
who had no other covering than an old pair of trowsers. I believe I 
was the only person present who took the least notice of the indelicacy of 
such an appearance, and indeed it is my opinion, were the slaves to go 
quite naked, it would have no more eifect on the feelings of the major 
part of the inhabitants of this country than what is produced by the 
sight of a dog or cat." Letter of March 10, 1787. Idem. 

* Many references to him appear in the accounts of his father's agent 
in New England. (Middlesex Probate, 19545, O.S.) A particularly in- 
teresting item is: " 1728 Aug. 31 To cash pd. Pelham for your son's pic- 
ture £15," with a similar sum a little later. The boy was then scarcely 
ten years old. The Royalls evidently had a passion for family portraits. 
Numbers of them are disposed of in the will of young Isaac, and still 
others are catalogued in Bayley, John Singleton Copley. The inventory 
of 1778 mentions "A large picture of 2 Children, £6" still remaining in 
the Medford mansion. Cf. note, page 9. 

' Middlesex Probate, 19545, Old Series, supra. 



16 THE CAMBEIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

1738 June 23 Cash to Penelope 20/- 

1740 March 4 Ring for Penelope 60/- 

Jun 15 Deblois teaching Penelope^ £1 

Aug. 9 Mr. Stevens Mak^ Cloggs for Penelope £5.13 

When in 1739 her father died ^ she became bj his will half 
owner with her brother of the Antigua plantation, and no small 
matrimonial prize.^ Whether her wooing by the youthful Jamaica 
planter, when she was scarcely turned seventeen, was warmed by 
some adumbration of this pleasing truth, we are left to conjecture. 
Was it a love match or a mariage a la mode? 

One fact is indubitable. With the exception of a daughter who 
died in infancy, the only fruit of the union was Elizabeth, bap- 
tized in December of 1742. This solitary representative of the 
next generation was nurtured with every advantage that solicitude 
could devise and wealth procure. The scraps of family records 
give evidence, if evidence were needed, that from infancy she en- 
joyed the possessions of a princess — fine clothes, jewelry, fairy- 
books, special furniture,- ponies ; and when she outgrew the last, 
a horse was brought for her all the way from Philadelphia. 
Servitors hovered around her to anticipate her slightest want. 
Strange fruits and toys came to her from far-away tropical islands. 
She had the best schooling that the metropolis of New England 
could give her. Admiring relatives surrounded and petted her ; 
distinguished visitors applauded and rewarded her little displays 
of cleverness. Her portrait was painted while still a child. Un- 
less human nature has strangely altered of late, we may safely say 
that from her throne in the nursery she ruled the household. 

Yet such a lonely nursery was against all family traditions. 
Boston and Cambridge, Milton and Braintree, were full of hand- 
some and wealthy young Vassalls. The girls were marrying right 

* Probably music lessons from Stephen De Blois, organist of King's Chapel. 

* Buried by mistake on his estate in Medford, he was hastily dug up again 
and carted to his summer home at Dorchester, where his marble tomb, pre- 
pared almost ten years before, awaited its occupant — foresighted indeed dur- 
ing life, but somewhat unable to control his affairs post obit. Brooks, History 
of Medford, 151. 

* By the will of lier mother in 1747 she further became entitled to the 
income of over £2000 during coverture, and to the principal if she survived 
her husband. (Middlesex Probate, 19543, O.S., and cf. page 20.) It 
is to be feared that long before hia death, however, he had managed to 
reach and squander all her property. See page 38 et seq. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 17 

and left into the first families of the " court circle." Six boys of 
the name were on the rolls of Harvard during the mid-centurj. 
Our Henry, it is true, did not enjoy the advantages of university 
training, possibly because he arrived here at about the age when 
boys then were graduated. Apparently in consequence of that 
lack, he has been carelessly spoken of as uneducated ; though the 
partial list, still preserved,^ of his handsome library belies the 
slur. 

But the want of a college education was not by any means 
all that differentiated the subject of the present sketch from 
the other somewhat conventional members of his generation, or 
the only reason why, so far as we can now estimate, he stands 
out from among them a more picturesque and compelling per- 
sonality. For he possessed qualities not always guaranteed by a 
college degree. He was eminently a man of affairs, a good organ- 
izer, an acute business manager, a leader acknowledged and es- 
teemed both among his own exclusive clique and among the hard- 
headed, hard-fisted rank and file of his townsmen. Twice did the 
latter, by electing him their representative in the General Court, 
evince their appreciation of his political sagacity.^ His abilities 
as a presiding ofiicer made him in considerable demand for 
" moderator " at town meetings.^ In church affairs he was, as 
we shall see, the local Episcopalians' spokesman and mainstay.* 
The trust and confidence reposed in him by his own relatives is 
shown in his appointment as guardian of the children of his de- 
ceased brother Lewis of Braintree.^ His military proficiency 
was notable enough to bring him in 1763 the not unimportant 
commission of lieutenant colonel in the First Regiment of Mid- 
dlesex Militia, commanded by his still more versatile neighbor, 

^ See Appendix A. 

' 1752 and 1756. Paige, History of Camhridge, 461. This was during 
a brief period in which the town tried the experiment of paying no salaries 
to its representatives, so that a man of wealth and leisure was almost a neces- 
sity for the position. (Idem, 133.) It must be admitted that a perusal of 
the House journals for these years does not reveal any startling official actiAa- 
ties of the Hon. H. VavSsall. Memberships on ornamental committees and 
similar complimentary appointments are most commonly associated with his 
name. 

* Cambridge Town Records, MSS., passim. 

* See page 43. 
' See page 25. 



18 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

William Brattle.^ If the citizen soldiers of his day were anything 
like those of the present, his appointment implies no small degree 
of popularity, adaptability, and skill in handling men. Though 
at that date there was no chance for active service, we can easily 
picture the dashing figure he must have made at the annual Cam- 
bridge " trainings." ^ 

Socially, above all, his family connections, lavish expenditures^ 
and ample hospitality gave him especial prominence. He waa 
long looked-to to do the honors of the town on any notable occasion. 

' Paige, History of Cambridge, 407. He is thus remembered as Colonel 
Henry, to distinguish him from the other Henry, the son of his brother 
William. His successor in the command was his popular friend, Thomas 
Oliver. 

" An almost photographic account of one of these inspiring occasions 
has been left by the Rev. Winwood Serjeant, the Colonel's (second) rector 
at Christ Church, whose house adjoined the common. Supplying the con- 
text on one margin, which has been torn off, it is as follows: 

" Yesterday the Honble Brigadier Genl made an elegant Entertainment for 
the Governor, Council, & a numljer of other Gentmen : After [dinner] ; 
being the grand muster Day for training, the several com [panics] of militia 
were ordered to attend: & a sham fight exhibited [between] the English 
& French: The English marching through Cambridge [w]ere smartly 
attacked by an ambuscade of the French who were [posted] behind Roe's, 
the Blacksmith's shop, near Col. Vafsal. The noble [Brigadier] vigorously 
repulsed the Enemy, forced his pafsage thro' the street, sword [in hand] 
& obliged the French Army to retreat to a strong Fort deeply intrenched 
[at the c]orner of the Common to the nor'ward of our house; After the 
Genl [had colle]cted his forces together upon the Common, he called a 
Council of [war & it] was soon determined to attack the Fort as his 
men were in [high spirjits after the late advantage: they advanced 
with great resolution: Victory was for some time dubious: but by the 
afsistance of [a brisk f]ire from the artillerj' advantageously posted on 
the right wing, [the eloqu]ence of the Officers, & the never failing courage 
of English [troops t]hey at last forced the Intrenchments, & obliged the 
Enemy to capitulate: they quitted the fort to the English, & marched thro. 
the Army with colours flying & Drums beating: the English then entered, 
demolished the outworks & set fire to the fort, a parcel of shavings laid 
there for that purpose: Thus ended the famous Battle of Cambridge to 
the great honour of Genl Brattle, his oflBcers & men: & to the admiration, 
of a large concourse of people: My House as full of Ladies as it could 
hold: Cost me a great deal of Tea, bread & butter & wine. I make no doubt 
you will have a pompous account of this Battle in the publick papers. 
What will make it more remarkable in future History is that no body waa 
killed or wounded excepting one private man belonging to the Artillery 
who had a pretty large cartrage of powder for the Cannon in his pocket 
which accidentally took fire, & burnt his cloths a good deal, but was much 
more frightened than hurt." Serjeant to Mrs. Browne, Cambridge, October- 
7, 1772. MSS. in possession of the Rev. Arthur Browne Livermore. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 19 

When, for example, the Hon. William Shirley passed through 
Cambridge on his way to assume the reins of his Majesty's gov- 
ernment at Boston, he broke the last stage of his journey " at the 
seat of CoL Vassal, at Cambridge, where he lodg'd that ISTight " 
and " was waited upon by a ^Number of Gentlemen from whom he 
received the Compliments of Congratulation." ^ He figured also 
in ceremonies of a more solemn sort. The diary of his contem- 
porary, John Rowe, records: 

1766, Sep. 12, Fryday. in Afternoon I went to the Funeral of My 
Old Friend Sam' Wentworth. his Bearers were. Old M^" Benj^ Fan- 
euill Colo Henry Vafsall M"" Jos Lee M^ W^ Sheaff M'' Eichard 
Clark and M^- Tho^ Brinly.^ 

As to the more intimate family life in that noted " seat," 
especially in the earlier years, the annalist is supplied with 
scanty information. One familiar figure in the experience of 
every young couple is not entirely obscured — the mother-in-law. 
With the Vassalls her relations seem to have been affectionate and 
appreciative. According to Mr. William Fessenden, Jr., 

Being at the House of M"*. Henry Vafsall in Cambridge some time 
in the Fall of the Year 1745 I there saw an ancient Lady, who, 
(as I was then informed) was Mrs. Vaf sal's Mother. She asked me if 
I knew her son Isaac I replied I did know him, and that we went 
to the School in Cambridge at one and the same Time. She farther 
asked me if I had heard any Thing about Him that Day, I told 
[her] I had not she seemed to me to be full of Concern about Him, 
for as I understood by Her, Her Son was not well She after this 
proceeded in Her Discourse, according to [the] best of my Eemem- 
brance as follows viz. I am come to tarry with my Daughter Penne 
(as she called M^^. Vaf sal) till Mr. Vaf sal's return I sometimes 
visit at one Child's and then at Another's But my Son's I call 
my Home She further said She hoped M'' Vafsal would not make 
a long tarry for slie wanted to go home — She also said Her Children 
were all y® Comfort she had left and that they were all kind and 
Tender to Her.^ 

* Boston Neicsletter, August 12, 1756. The event was Imndled with such 
matter-of-course ease that not a ripple of its excitement is reflected in 
the household accounts for the day. 

^ MS. at Mass. Hist. Society. The concourse at Vassall's own funeral hore 
final witness to his standing in the community. See page 44. 

' Aflnidavit in No. 129879, " Early Court Files," Oerk's Office, Supreme Judi- 



20 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

For her son Isaac, on the other hand, her apparent solicitude 
proved sadly deceptive. When she died, in April of 1747, she 
left a long and complicated will, amidst all the involutions of 
which one painful fact was only too clear — Isaac had been 
omitted altogether. Her only immediate bequests were a thou- 
sand pounds to each of her three granddaughters and namesakes, 
Elizabeth Oliver, Elizabeth Royall, and Elizabeth Vassall. The 
gift to the last was " now lying in debts owing to me from her 
father Henry Vassall, on two bonds," of 1744, " both to remain in 
the hands of the executor until paid." The residue — the estate 
was all in bonds totalling almost £8000 — after a long trust 
term was to be divided between her daughters Ann Oliver and 
Penelope Vassall, for their own private and separate uses. 

Thereupon Isaac Royall, having divided with Henry Vassall 
all the personalty in which Madame Royall had only a life in- 
terest, entered into a solemn compact with him and Robert 
Oliver, father of Elizabeth Oliver, to break the will. But when 
the appeal was finally carried up to the Governor and Council, 
Henry Vassall's name was not on the papers. Whether this 
was due to his absence, or to some quarrel he had had with his 
fellow suitors, or to his own good business sense, we cannot say. 
At all events the appeal was dismissed, and the Vassalls were 
free to receive their appointed shares, undiminished either by 
contributions to the neglected Isaac (who was already rich enough 
in all conscience) or by costs of an expensive suit,^ 

Reminiscent mutterings of this family tempest evidently per- 
sisted for years, especially in the matter of the Antigua planta- 
tion. This, for some time after his marriage, Henry Vassall 
worked, in the right of his wife, as joint tenant with its other 
owner, Isaac Royall, Though both were extremely young for 
such responsibilities, their operations were so successful that 
early in 1747 they extended them by leasing a nearby tract of 
one hundred and forty-eight acres from Robert Oliver.^ The 
next year, however, they recorded an agreement to hold " sundry 

cial Court, Boston. Mr. Vassall's absence here implied was doubtless due to 
one of his trips to the West Indies. 

* Middlesex Probate, 10.543, O.S., and Case No. 129879, " Early Court Files," 
Clerk's Office, Supreme Judicial Court, Boston. 

• Oliver, History of Antigua, ii, 348. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 21 

negroes and homed cattle and horses, which they have jointly 
purchased since 1739, and put upon a certain plantation," no 
longer as joint tenants, but as tenants in common, " so that no 
right of survivorship be between them." ^ This may have been 
the outcome of what Koyall refers to as " a Dispute between 
Mr. Vassall and myself in Antigua when he was on y® spot & 
I stade heir \Jiere] waiting for y^ event of our Scheme [to super- 
sede Governor Benning Wentworth of ISTew Hampshire] which 
was a gi'eater damage to me than y® former [loss on sugar]." ^ 

The new arrangement made little practical difference, and the 
Colonel, who seems to have been the active partner throughout, 
continued his production of sugar and rum ^ so assiduously that 
his brother-in-law became jealous, accused him of monopolizing 
the plant, and brought suit " for the use and hire of the Windmill, 
Boiling House, Cureing House, Still house and other the Sugar 
Works erected and then being upon eight Acres and three quarters 
of Land of the s^ Isaac's lying in the Division of Pope's head so 
called, in Antigua aforesd." 

Again, however, the Colonel's business cleverness proved more 
than a match for his slow-witted associate, and thanks to a pro- 
viso he had inserted in their agreement, he obtained a verdict in 
his favor with costs, both in the lower court and on appeal. There- 
upon the exasperated Eoyall actually brought a writ of review, 
but suffered the same fate a third time.^ It is easy to conclude 
that this fresh wrangle paved the way for the partition of the 
whole estate a few years later, as will appear. 

Of Henry Vassall's daily life when at Cambridge, the most 
extended and illuminating details are to be gathered from a 

^ Middlesex Deeds, 47/338. Vassall was then apparently in Antigua, as his 
signature had to be sworn to in Boston by one of the witnesses. 

^ Royall to Waldron, Charlestown, January 15, 1749/50. New Hamp- 
shire Provincial Papers, vi, 67. We have here a perfect cameo of the two 
men — Royall easy-going and gullible, losing money by inaction; Vassall 
energetic, perhaps rather quarrelsome, but carrying his point. 

' Cf. Affidavit of Stephen Greenleaf in the appeal on Mrs. Royall's will; 
that he worked for her many years, and " whenever he carried in his 
accots she asked him what he would drink; he told her some of Mr Isaac 
Royalls Double Still'd Rum And accordingly she sent for it & had it & 
gave it him and further Deponent Saith not." 

* No. 68209, " Early Court Files," Clerk's Office, Supreme Judicial Court, 
Boston. 



22 THE CAMBEIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

little expense book kept by him during- the years 1755-1759.^ 
As this volume is the only known original source of information 
on our subject, it may bear somewhat extended quotation. The 
entries, from interior evidence, appear to be in '* old tenor," a 
depreciated currency then fast disappearing, which passed for 
'' lawful money " at the rate of seven and a half for one, — lawful 
money, the standard of value in New England, being in turn worth 
only three-quarters of sterling.^ 

The high cost of living first claims our attention. A load of 
wood was worth £2;10, of hay £7:7:6, a thousand of lath £3, 
"20 locust posts" £9, 531/0 b^shels of oats £26:15:6, 8 lbs. 
wax candles £7 :10, a yoke of oxen £130, a hog £16, two shoats 
£9 :18, the freight of a horse from Philadelphia £8 :5, and " six 
boat loads of Mud [ ? manure] £24." For the table, butter was 
4/6 the pound, " a loaf of Single refin'd sugar" £3 :5 :10, " fish " 
£6 per quintal, geese 18/ each, numberless barrels of cider 70/ 
a barrel, and Lisbon wine £50 per cask. Pork and Indian-meal, 
the staples of Colonial diet, figure steadily of course on the menu; 
but there are plenty of more appetizing items: oysters, herrings, 
" mackarell," salmon, sausages, cheese, almonds, pears, radishes, 
" spinnach," turnips, " garlix," pease, white beans, " biscuet," 
ducks, chickens, turkeys, fowls, " colebrands," quails, teal, 
pigeons, beef, calveshead, rabbits, lamb, veal, venison, and quanti- 
ties of " lemmons," honey, and " chocolat." 

For personal use we find sundry pairs of " Lemonee handker- 
cheifs " at £24 a pair, 

" a Wigg, £12 " 

" Earing [sic] ^ for Betsey £2 :5 " 

" a Hatt, £14 " 

" pocket compass & silver pen £12 :7 :6 " 

" Desk for Betsey £35 " 

* Loaned to the Cambridge Historical Society in 1914 by Mrs. Oliver 
McCowen. (See note, page 8.) It is 4i^ by 7 inches, bound in limp mar- 
bled-p>aper covers, and contains toward the back a number of blank pages. 
" Henry Vafsall 1753 " is writ large on the fly-leaf, but the first entries 
are of the journey of 17.')5. See page 26. 

* The net result of all which is that the prices here given are just ten times 
their equivalents in sterling. 

' Cf. " Gold wires for ears " of John Vassall's daughter Lucy, aged twelve. 
Guardian's Accounts, Middlesex Probate, 23339, Old Series. 







'n 



ftl^W^ 















/0J^Jl Ar^P /J^^ ^ 



/^;UaWot/^^ ^Q 



19^. 



6 



dm 



to. 
sit 



A PAGE OF HENRY VASSALLS ACCOUNTS 
(Actual size) 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 23 

" cork Shoes £6 " 

" stays for Eliz. Vassall £25 " [She was sixteen !] 

"stays for P[enelope]. V [assail]. £37" 

" gave Betsey to buy a Gown £40 " 

" Eliztii Vassall to buy a Quilt £25 '* 

" cash pd. fustian for her £4 :10 '* 

^' Mending watches £2 :10 " 

" watch Chain &c £2 :5 " 

" tape & Camomile flowers £1 :16 " 

" Leather Breeches for Abraham Hasey £12 :15 " 

and several rather unexpected charges for " weaving cotton and 
linen at the Manufactory." Entries like the above, we must 
remember, were only the small local expenditures. Frequent 
references to " imposts of goods from London " show where the 
more important purchases were made. 

An idea of the demands upon the purse of a prominent man is 
given : 

1756 March 18th pd. Howe for my rates in full £31 :7 :10 
April 26th pd. Tappin, ministerial rates £13 :8 :3 

Hasey's Ditto £3 :4 :3 
August 20th pd. Craddock my Subscription to Dipper [the 

organist at King's 'Chapel] £10:10 
Nov. Sam'l Whittemore, one third of my subscription to y® 

[Cambridge] meeting house £50 
Marratt for y^ Parson's chaize £4:10 

1757 Jan. 12th pd. S. Palmer for my taxes £38:10:11 

Sept. 17th. S. Whittemore being in full of my subscription 
to the meeting house in Cambridge £100 

1758 Feb. 3d. Prentice for taxes £55 :19 :0 

pd. Sheaffe my Subscription to rice [ ?] £10 

Cash p'^ at Charitable Society ^ £10 :15 :6 

Ministerial taxes £17 :5 :0 

Tickets for Concert £11 :5 

p^ 10 tickets Boston Lottery Clafs W 6 £45 

Henry Prentice alias touch £10:2:1 

[an early use of the slang term] 
Prentice, touch in full £10 :10 

* Cf. John Rowe's Diary, October 4, 1764. " Spent the evener at the 
Charitable Society gave away Charity about twenty dollars." 



24 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

Dec. 25th. pd. at Trinity Church £19:10:0 
given E[lizabeth] [liver] & E. V. £3:13 
1759 April at Charitable Society £17:17:6 

Besides the slaves, of whom anon,^ various workpeople and 
local tradesmen move in and out among these pages, — " Grriggs 
y* Gardner," " Gamage y^ Cooper," " Nancy y^ manteau maker," 
" Welch, Glazier," " Dutch Betty," " Curtis the Wheelwright," 
and so on.^ Abraham Hasey, the college carpenter,^ stands out 
most prominently of all. Between him and Henry Vassall there 
plainly existed some close though unexplained relationship. For 
the support of this humble artisan (and his wife) the gilded man- 
about-town enters constant expenditures, covering food, drink, 
clothing, rates, taxes, and pocket money. Even his father-in-law, 
Samuel Felch the tailor, was remembered. Payments are also 
made to 

" Jenkins for paper hangings " 

" Colpee for washing " 

" Mrs. Phillips for nursing " 

" Isaac Steams for cyder " 

* See page 61 ef seq. 

' Another rather famous retainer was " Miss Molly Hancock, whom, as old 
Molly, we recollect in our early days. She had been employed by the 
court circle, and her admiration of the Vassals and others of those old- 
style gentry remained unchanged by time. Her expression was, ' You 
could worship the ground they trod on.' The past was enough for her, 
she did not desire to be reconciled to the present. Her small old cottage 
stood on Garden Street, a short distance from the northeast corner of 
Appian Way." John Holmes, " Harvard Square," Ha/rvard Book, ii, 44. 
Cf. Paige, History of Cambridge, 573. 

' Faculty Records, 1762 et seq. Abraham Haaey married, January 17, 1739- 
40, Jemima, daughter of Samuel Felch of Reading, who had recently come to 
Cambridge. She was born in the former town January 21, 1718. Hasey owned 
a small piece of property on the Watertown road, adjoining John Vassall, and 
was taxed 1/9 for it in 1770. After the death of his benefactor, however, he 
had to realize on it. See Paige, History of Cam.bri<lge, 542. Harris, Vassalla 
of New England, 18. Felch Family History, pt. ii, ch. vii. Middlesex Deeds, 
passim. Cambridge Court Records, 1742-48. Mass. Archives, 130/430. 

Isaac Hasey, undoubtedly his son, enjoyed, probably through the kindness 
of Henry Vassall, the college education (cla^s of 1762) which the Colonel him- 
self never had the advajitage of. His lowly social position is shown by his 
" placing " in the class, the last among fifty-one. Nevertheless the boy had 
good stuflF in him, and after " proceeding A.M." became the first minister of 
Lebanon, Maine. N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register, xiv, 90. Harvard 
GradAiatea' Magazine, xxv, 190. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 25 

" Jno. Walland for a wigg for Hasey " 

" Mrs. Steames for her trouble " 

" cash to pay y® pedlar " 

" Welch for mending windows " 

" ye Tinker for mending sundrys " 

" Dedham Girl for Onions *' 

" Eobeshaw's ^ daughter for washing " 

" Crawford on acct. paving " 

" Mrs. Sables for nursing " ^ 

There is, besides, a long account with the famous Judah Monis, 
who varied his teaching of Hebrew at college by keeping a hard- 
ware emporium. 

Though the Colonel had no son of his own, a similar re- 
sponsibility, as has been mentioned, fell to him in 1757, when 
his deceased brother Lewis's children, Anna, aged eighteen, and 
Lewis, aged sixteen, nominated for their guardian their " Honored 
Uncle Henry Vassall, of Cambridge, Esquire." They came from 
the Braintree side of the family. Since their father's death 
(and doubtless before it) they had been educated and maintained 
" by the net proceeds of sugar and molasses received from Sayers 
& Gale, George Kuggles and others, at Jamaica." ^ Lewis Vas- 
sall was already in Harvard College,* as a member of the class 
of 1760, wherein he was " placed " according to social precedence 
as number five on a list of twenty-seven.*^ The accounts give an 

* Cf. Christ Church Building Accounts: " 1761 Augt pd Robishew digging 
the cellar & 13 days work ^ Accot £16. — .8." Louis Robicheau was one of the 
Arcadian exiles or " French neutrals " billeted on Cambridge in 1755. 

* The number of entries for nursing, at a period when Miss Elizabeth was 
well out of her infancy, somehow suggests that Mrs. Vassall was more or less 
of an invalid. 

' Suffolk Probate, 57/309. See Harris, Vassalls of Neio England. 

* Owing to the inadequate dormitory accommodations he was " hording " 
at Mary Minot's, with his sister Nancy. Betsy Vassall (then aged fifteen) 
was also " hording " — probably at school in Boston — at George Craddock's. 

* It is interesting to note that number one was Thomas Brattle. Nearly 
a year was consumed in collecting and weighing the data for the " placing " 
of each class, the final arbitrament not being announced until March or 
April after the freshmen had entered. The anxious punctilio with which 
the duty was done may be gathered from the following entry in the Faculty 
Records: " 15 April 1760. At this Meeting also Noyes's Place in his Clafs 
was consider'd & as his Father is a Justice of the Peace wch we did not 
know when the Clafs was plac'd, it was aggreed the Place assigned him [No. 



26 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

excellent idea of the outlays for a pretty young gentleman in 

the best society of his day : 

Letter of Guardianship for Lewis & Ann Vassall £4:10 
[December 2, 1757] 

Lewis to buy books £4:10 

Subscription to Lovell [probably the master of the Boston 
Latin School] £11:5:0 

Lewis Vassall, cash p"^ him to buy cyder & for pocket ex- 
penses £6:15 :0 

Lewis Vassall, cash for Entrance [fee] for Dancing [school] * 
90/- for Ent: for fencing 100/- for him to buy Corks 
£2 :5 :0 

Lewis Vassall, to buy a horace & for Pocket Expenses £8 :5 

Lewis Vassall, pair of pumps for him £3 :5 :0 

Lewis Vassall, Cash pd. Mefsrs Gould for Holland & Cam- 
brick for his Shirts, £56:17:6 

This little book, moreover, opens out a horizon wider than that 
of Cambridge, or even of Boston. (To reach the latter, by the 
way, there are various entries of " ferriage," showing that even 
the possessors of chariots did not always care for the villainous 
eight-mile road to the metropolis.) Henry Vassall travelled ex- 
tensively. Sometimes the trips were short, as in May, 1759, 
a "journey to Plymouth £14:10." In October of 1756 we find 
the " Expenses of Journey at, to & from Rhode Island £36," and 
a similar entry just a year later.^ In March and April of 1755 
— the earliest entries in the book — are the road-house charges of 

16] wag too low, & after tho Matter was debated it was voted that his 
Place shou'd be between Hen^:liaw & Angier [i.e., No. 8]." 

* Cf. the guardianship accounts for Lucy Vassall, daughter of John Jr.: 

" 1758 June 19 Pd, Entrance at Dancing School 12/- Dec. 9 Ephraim 

Turner ^4 years Dancing 16/-" (Middlesex Probate, 23339, Old Series.) Such 
Bocial advantages were then as now sought in Boston, though it is doubtful 
if the Harvard undergraduates frequented them as largely as at present. 
Some years later, in 1766, the Corporation Records mention that " a dancing 
school hath lately been open'd in Cambridge & divers Scholars of this Houfe 
have attended it, without Leave from the Government of the College," a 
condition of things that was adjudged " of bad Consequence," so that the 
" Disapprobation " of the president and fellows was to te signified to the 
selectmen, — after which, it is to be supposed, the local cult of Terpsichore 
languished. 

• Probably business trips, Newport being the New York City of Colonial 
commerce. 



I 



1915.] COL. HENEY YASSALL 27 

a trip, probably made on horseback, through Greenwich, Charles- 
town, " Stoneington," and Groton to New London, where the 
rider " pd y^ IST. London Pilot £27 " and evidently crossed the 
Sound. Then " p^ at y® fire place on Long Island at Miller's 
£14:10," and on through " S. Hampton," " river head," " [Mr.] 
Blidenburgh ^ at Smith town," Hampstead, Jamaica, " Flatt 
bush," " ye N'arrows," " Statten Island," " Eliz*^ town," Bruns- 
wick, " Prince town," and " Trentown " to Bristol. The trip, to 
this point (where the record ceases), took eleven days. 

His business interests in the West Indies carried him even 
farther afield. As has been said, his wife's plantation at Antigua 
necessitated trips to that island at frequent intervals. One such 
voyage was made in 1763.^ Again on May 19, 1765, John 
Eowe notes : " Col. Henry Vassall sailed this afternoon in Capt. 
Phillips for Antigua." ^ His own Jamaica property, too, de- 
manded personal attention. Though he early sold some of his 
estates there, he long managed to extract a good deal of revenue 
from that locality.* One of his journeys thither crops up some- 
what oddly among the records of the college with which he had 
no real affiliations. At a meeting of the president and fellows, 
December 14, 1756: 

Vafsall, senr ^ (A senior sophister) having some considerable Dif- 
ficulties, about the Rents of his Estate at Jamaica & desiring Leave 
to go thither to look after Them, His Guardian also the Lieut. 

* I am informed that the name of Blidenburgh is still honorably represented 
at Smithtown. A little cluster of houses at a landing on the extreme eastern 
tip of Long Island is still known as Fire Place. 

^ See page 36. On this visit we catch sight of him attending the auction 
sale of the " furniture &c of John Watkins Esq. Mr in Chancery deed " and 
bidding in "A Mahogany shaving stand £4.18.0i" while his friend Thomas 
Oliver went the whole figure and spent £300' on slaves, sil\-^r, and pictures. 
Antigua records for 1763, communicated by Vere L, Oliver, Esq. 

' Diary, 82. Concerning this voyage see page 40. 

* From entries in the back of the little account book it appears that in 
1758 he received a single remittance from George Ruggles of £1000 sterling 
"on Acc't of J. V's Estate" and another of £100 "on Acc't of Top Hill 
Estate." Cf. the statement of his brother William after the Revolution: 
" I spent £50,000 stg. in the United States, every farthing of which I 
received from my Jamaica estate." Mass. Hist. Soo. Collections, Tenvple 
Papers, ii, 105. 

° I.e., John Vassall, '57, thus distinguished because Lewis Vassall, '60, had 
just entered college. 



28 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

Governr, [Spencer Phips] backing thofe his Desires, the sd Affair 
now came under our Consideration. 

Inasmuch then, as the s^ Vafsall's Unckle, Coll<> Vafsall of this 
Town, is going to Jamaica & will take him under his Care, & also 
endeavour to assist Him in the Businefs he goes upon. It was now 
Voted, That the s** Vafsall be allow'd to proceed on a Voyage to 
Jamaica, for the Ends affores^. But that he have not Liberty, to 
be absent from the College more than four Months, but that He 
be here to attend his Businefs at the College, on or before the first 
Day of May next,^ 

Yet why drag in business interests when one speaks of the 
Cambridge Loyalists? The serious affairs that obviously must 
have engaged some portion of their time and energy are in- 
variably obscured in popular fancy by the more picturesque 
side of their life, that alone seems to be remembered to-day. For 
good or ill we always envisage them, as it were, through the 
golden, lilac-scented haze of a perpetual June. Hardly had they 
fled from their lovely villas before a new arrival in one of them, 
echoing the envious gossip she heard around her, began the tra- 
dition by writing that " the owners had been in the habit of 
assembling every afternoon in one or another of these houses 
and of diverting themselves with music or dancing, and lived 
in affluence, in good humor and without care." ^ That they 

* " College Book No. 7," Harvard Corporation Records. It is to be ob- 
served that such aji absence from college was plainly a very serious matter, 
granted only by the highest authority of the University, and under pres- 
sure from the most influential sources, to a student whose wealth and 
position entitled him to be " placed " second in his class. 

This voyage to Jamaica explains a hiatus in the little account book from 
February 11 to September 15, 1757. 

' Letters of Madame Riedesel, 105. This, the stock quotation when speak- 
ing of the Cambridge Loyalists, has probably done more than any other 
to settle their reputation with the sons of the Puritans. The pride which 
these urbane gentry took in their " good humour " is as curious as the 
disfavor with which the rest of the community regarded it. Their rector 
plumed himself on the fact that " the people of our communion are generally 
frank, open, sincere . . . their actions are social, generous and free. There 
is likewise among them a politeness and elegance which to a censorious eye 
may look worldly and voluptuous." (Apthorp, A Review, etc., 50.) To the 
eye of the redoubtable Jonathan Mayhew the Church of England men appeared 
" often exceedingly loose, profligate, vain and censorious," and their clergy 
disgraced themselves by " a pretty gay, debonair and jovial countenance." 
Observations, etc., 74. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 29 

managed to extract far more pleasure out of existence than their 
more serious-minded neighbors is indisputable. " Notwithstand- 
ing plays and such like diversions do not obtain here," wrote a 
visitor to Boston about the time of Henry Vassall's marriage, 
" they don't seem to be dispirited nor moped for want of them ; 
for both the ladies and gentlemen dress and appear as gay, in 
common, as courtiers in England on a coronation or birthday. 
And the ladies here visit, drink tea, and indulge every little 
piece of gentility to the height of the mode, and neglect the 
affairs of their families with as good grace as the finest ladies 
in London." ^ A favorite form of recreation was al fresco en- 
tertainments, or in winter convivial indoor parties, at the famous 
hostelries scattered through the beautiful country about Boston. 
The account book gives sundry hints of such excursions : 

1756 April 22nd. p<^ y^ reckn^ at Larnards £20.11.4 

May 10th. p^ M''^ Coolidge tavern keepers wife in full £2.10 
August 6th. Expences at the Castle &c. £2.17.6 
Sep. 21 fishing lines & hooks £1.7 

1757 Dec. 20th. p^ at Qiatons ^ £4.15 
Dec. 23d Sundrys at Smiths £4.10 

1758 May 13th Expences at JJracut £17.5 
June 29th p<i at Natick £4.10 

1759 Apr. 6 Cash p<i at Watertown £8. 

The Colonel's friend, John Rowe, in his Diary a few years later, 
gives notes of a more extended and social nature. Thus: 

1766 Sep. 23 I went to Fresh Pond & din'd there on Turtle with 
Henry Vassall & wife & (a large company) 

A frequent member of these gatherings, and a close intimate 
of the family, was a certain ill-defined cosmopolite, one Michael 
Trollett, a French Swiss, last hailing from Dutch Guiana, rich 

^ Bennett, "History of New England," (1740) Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceed- 
ings, 1860, 125. The same conditions were noted by a sriiest of the Colonel's 
ten years later: "The People of Boston dress very genteel & In my Opinion 
both men & Women are too Expensive in that respect." Some Cursory Re- 
marks made hy James Birket, etc. 1750. 

^ John Greaton kept " The Greyhound " at Roxbury. Coolidge's tavern 
was at " Watertown Bridge." See Pierce's delightful essay on the amuse- 
ments of Colonial Boston in his introduction to Letters and Diary of John 
Rowe. For Smith's at Watertown see page 31. 



30 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

and gouty, trying in vain to get a scapegrace son through Har- 
vard, and finally disappearing in the direction of Lancaster.^ 

* " Michael Trollet Esqr Native of Geneva of French Extract deceas'd 
Sunday Morning July 17th. 1774." (Nourse, Lancaster Register, 160.) He 
is almost always mentioned in comiection with Henry Vassall; Rowe notea 
with surprise, " 1765, Feb. 16, Went to see Mr. Trollet who I found alone." 
He owned no real estate in Cambridge, although his personal taxes were 
almost as high as Vassall's in 1770. (Mass. Archives, 130/430, where the 
name is entered as " Truelatt.") He had the gout as early as 1759, and grad- 
ually attained some celebrity as a martyr in the cause of high living. " Gouty 
Trollet is going to Live at Lancaster," wrote the second rector of Christ 
Church, Winwood Serjeant, to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Browne, October 7, 
1772. 

His son, Michael James Trollett, entered Harvard from " Surrinam," at 
the age of sixteen in 1759, ranking socially number 18 out of 42. His 
hectic career may be traced in the Faculty Records. In March, 1760, he 
was fined 6/3 for five days' absence, and in April, 2/6 for two days. In 
June he was away " a Week and 5 Dales," and was mulcted 16/3. In 
July, " Agreed also that Trollett be punishd with a pecuniary Mulct for 
going out of Town wthout Leave five several Times according to the College 
Law provided in That Case viz Twelve Shillings & 6d @ 2/6 ^ Time. 
That Trollet also for two very great Crimes, One for refusing more than 
once to come to his Tutr when sent for. The other, For greatly neglecting 
his College Exercises notwithstanding the pecuniary Mulcts inflicted by hia 
Tutr: be punish'd as ye College law in case directs viz by Degradation, x-iz. 
Ten places in his Clafs and that henceforth he take his place between 
Putnam junr & Senr Furthermore wth Respect to Trollett. CoUo Brattle 
having made complaint to us, That the sd Trollet grofsly insulted his 
train'd Compa wh under Arms, by firing a Squib or Serpent among their 
firelocks when loaded & primed & all grounded, wrby he great [lyl en- 
dangered the limbs @ least of the Souldiers & Spectators; yet he (Collo 
Brattle) having said, That he wou'd not desire the" said Trollett shou'd 
be animadverted upon by us; Provided he wou'd give Satisfaction to him 
for that hia Offense, Therefore agreed, that before we consider that his 
Affair, He (Trollet) shou'd have Time & Opportunity given him wherein to 
endeavr to make the sd Collo Brattle a proper Satisfaction. The Presdt 
read to Trollet the above vote referring to Collo Brattle immediately after 
this Meeting. — The above Vote with respect to TroUett's degradation was 
executed in the Chapel July 9 imediately after Morning Prayer." In 
September, " Voted That Palmer ... & Trollet, be punish'd one shilling 
& 6d each, for making tumultuous & indecent noises, in the College . . . 
that they be all of ym sent for before us (excepting Trollet who was not 
in Town, & whose punishmt must therefore be deferr'd to some other Time) 
. . . ." In October, " That Hill senr & Trollett be punish'd one Shilling & 
6d Each for making tumultuous & indecent Noises in the College. And 
that for an Jnsult made upon Mr. Thayer one of the Tutrs of this Houfe, 
They both be publicly admonish'd & Degraded, viz. Hill fourteen Places 
in his Clafs &. take his Place henceforth between, Adams and Hunts present 
Place. And that Trollet be degraded to the lowest place in his Clafs. — 
The above Vote executed Oct. 8 imediately after morning Prayers." The 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 31 

Howe records, for instance : 

1766 Sep. 18 I went to Mr. Smith's Farm at Watertown M'" Fes- 
Bendens Brother & dined there with M"* James Smith & wife M"^ 
Murray & wife. Two M'"® Belchers M"" Inman, M"" Walter Colo 
Henry Vassall & wife M'" Trollet, M^^^ Cutler ^ M"" J. Amiel & wife & 
Miss Chrissy, Cap* Buntin & Two French Gentlemen from Guadalope. 

1767 June 8. Called on Henry Vassall & M"" Trollet, spent an hour 
with them & then Cap* Ingram & I went to Freshpond a fishng. . . . 

These whiifs of a foreign entourage are very characteristic of 
the atmosphere which envelops the Vassalls in a semi-romantic 
glamour. Passing and repassing, with a freedom unknown to-day, 
between the languorous luxury of their southern islands and 
the prosaic austerity of their northern surroundings, they not 
unnaturally chose their cronies from among the ingratiating 
noblesse of the Caribbean, the swarthy grandees of the Spanish 
Main, who through business or pleasure alternated as their hosts 
on the enchanted shores of the Antilles and their guests in sedate 
Massachusetts.- For the !N^ew England gentry, even in the best 

Quarter Bill Book for this period shows that TroUett's fines, beginning 
with 1/6 in the first quarter of 1759, mounted to the shocking sum of 
£2.6.9 by the fourth — far the largest of the whole college. In the third 
quarter of his sophomore year he abruptly disappears, and the Faculty 
Records contain the final note : " Memo Trollet gave up his Chamber, Novr 
7, 1760." 

^ Mrs. Anna Cutler figures frequently in the later records of the Vassall 
household, — at the dinner-table, on pleasure parties, as witness to documents, 
etc. She was the wife of Captain Ebenezer Cutler, long the Town Clerk of Lin- 
coln. Her daughter Sarah married in 1764 Samuel Hill, a Cambridge carpen- 
ter with an imfortunate reputation for shiftlessness. The Cutlers on the other 
hand, though in reduced circumstances, were of eminent respectability, and 
were somewhat notable managers; and as Mrs. Cutler was considerably older 
than Mrs. Vassall it seems likely that she was employed as a sort of upper- 
housekeeper, or perhaps as duenna for Miss Elizabeth. See Middlesex Probate, 
5502 and 5510, Old Series. Cutler Memorial, 33. Paige, History of Cam- 
bridge, 585. 

* A delicate sub-tropical aroma exhales even now from the wills and in- 
ventories of the family and their connections, ► — a seductive blend of 
coffee and spice and sugar, slaves and molasses and rum — especially rum. 
VvTiile the bone and sinew of New England were hard at work buying and 
selling, importing and smuggling these indispensables, the actual producers 
thereof were lolling in their splendid town and country houses, satisfying 
themselves with occasional jaunts to oversee their overseers. This West 
Indian influence on our local records is typically illustrated by the Vassalla. 
Old Leonard entailed on his son Lewis " my Plantation and Sugarwork in 
Luana, in the parish of St. Elizabeth's in Jamaica," and devised to his 



32 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

social life of Boston, the Colonel did not seem to care overmuch. 
Possibly he did not feel altogether at home among them. Rowe, 
in those long-drawn lists of guests at dinners, club meetings, and 
public functions, never mentions him as appearing in towTi, 
except semi-occasionally at his brother William's. Around his 
own mahogany tree, nevertheless, he delighted to gather select 
coteries, not forgetting the young friends of Miss Elizabeth. E. g. 

1765, February 12, Wednesday. Went to Cambridge this forenoon & 
dind at Henry Vafsalls with him & M". Vafsall M"" Jnman Mifs 
Bettsy Vafsall Mifs Pen : Winslow The Rev<i M"" Griffiths & M" 
Cutler also M'"^ Row & young Edw*^ Winslow ^ 

"We may thus fancy him engrossed and satisfied with the charmed 
inner circle of Cambridge, extending his own princely hospitality 
to relatives, intimates, and distinguished visitors. 

Typical, we may be sure, was the welcome accorded to James 
Birket, a wealthy Antiguan who arrived in Boston during Sep- 
tember, 1750, on a tour through N^ew England. Although fur- 
nished with letters of introduction to a number of prominent 
residents, he almost immediately selected the most congenial 
among them and " went home w*^ H Vassels to Cambridge in his 
Chariot." At the house he found more guests — " Old Parson 
Jn** Chickly ^ & his wife come from Providence In a Chair 47 

son William an interest in another " on Green Island River, near Orange 
Bay in the Parish of Hannover, at the West end of Jamaica and Joyning 
the Plantation I have given by Deed unto my Son John " ( apparently " on 
the Barquadier black river in the Island of Jamaica"). John Jr. owned 
" Newfound River Plantation in Jamaica." A cousin, Florentius Vassall, 
had " several plantations in the parish of Westmoreland, Jamaica, known 
as Friendship, GreeuAvich and Sweet River." Otlier relatives owned a good 
part of Barbados. The Royall property in Antigua has been described. 
The wife of young Isaac Royall inherited " Lands and Plantations called 
Fairfield lying in Commewine River in the Province of Surinam." Of 
young John Vassall's sisters, Lucy married John Lavicount, the heir of 
" Long Lane, Delaps & Windward in St. Peter's Parish, Antigua," while 
Elizabeth espoused Thomas Oliver from the same island. Henry's sister 
Susanna married George Ruggles, a wealthy merchant of Jamaica. All 
these fine gentlemen resided in Cambridge for longer or shorter intervals. 

* MS. of Rowe's Diary at Mass. Hist. Society. Vassall's well-known hospi- 
tality to the clergy was wofully abused by the " Rev. Mr. Griffiths." Tlic 
fellow had just arrived as successor to East Apthorp in the rectorship of 
Christ Church, but turned out an arrant impostor and thief named Mieux. 

' The indomitable John Checkley, now nearing the end of his pilgrimage, 
but a notable figure twenty-five years before in the early stages of the great 



I 




^ 3 
J < 



-■1/ 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 33 

Miles." Some ten days were spent in dining, sight-seeing, and 
excursions, along precisely the same lines still employed by Cam- 
bridge hosts: 

Sept. 10. Henry Vassels & Self went in his Chace to Dorchester to 
dine with Cole° Eob* Oliver being 9 Miles Eeturned in the Evening. 
11th. We went with a Couple of Country Clergymen, Conducted by 
Hancock one of the Tutors to See the College at Cambridge . . . 
After our return from the CoUedg dined with H Vassels. 
12th. H. Vassels, One Ellerey,i Old Chickley And myself Went in 

2 Chases to Castle William, which Stands upon an Island in the Bay 

3 Miles below Boston and 12 from Cambridge where we dined with 
the Captain Chaplain &C in the Great Hall 

Upon leaving, however, he received an attention which few modern 
hosts would have either the time or the money to bestow. 

18th. Set out for Ehode Island, H. Vassels And his Wife, Mary 
Phipps The Lieu* Gov^^ Daughter w*^ Two Servants &C To Accom- 
pany me So far on my Journey. 

Under the tutelage of this pleasant party he spent a week visiting 
and inspecting Providence and Wewport. Finally, with obvious 
regret, he notes: 

24th. This Morning I Accompany'd my good friends Henry Vassals 
& his Spouse And Mary Phips on their return back as far as Bristol 
ferry which is 12 Miles where I took leave of 'em.^ 

Some of the last of the Colonel's entertainments were those 
connected with the wedding of his daughter Elizabeth in 1768. 
The lucky man was Dr. Charles Eussell of Charlestown.^ After 

" Episcopal Controversy." Henry Vassall's churchmansliip was of the prac- 
tical kind that always kept open house for the cloth. 

^ Probably the second husband of Lucy, widow of the Colonel's brother John, 
now deceased. 

^ Some Cursory Remarks made hy James Birket in his Yoj/age to X. Amerwa 
1150-51. Concerning Cambridge itself, he observes : " The Town of Cambridge 
is well Scituated . . . but has no trade (being too Near to Boston) the In- 
habitants depends Chiefly on their Courts &C being the Chiefe of a County 
And the Colledge &C There are Some good homes here and the town is laid 
out very Regular, but for want of trade One 4th part of it is not built." In an 
appended list of his letters of introduction he enters " one for Henry Vassals 
Esqr my true fr'd." 

° " 1768, February 17. I paid a visit to Colo. Henry Vassall k Family 



34 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

graduating from Harvard in 1757 and studying medicine in 
England and Scotland — a rare privilege in those days — he 
had set up in practice at Lincoln, on an estate inherited from 
his uncle, Judge Russell. The bride was one of that fair bevy 
of patrician maidens whom a later chronicler who loved his " old " 
Cambridge has described as sympathetically as if he himself had 
felt their charm. " They blend prettily the courtly elegance 
which they emulate, with the simplicity of manner that is their 
provincial birthright. Though conforming to the general habits 
of New England, they are free from the more rigorous restraints 
of Puritanism. Their holiday life is to be a short one. We find 
plenty of beauty, but no familiar countenances in that group. 
They have left no copies here by which to recognize them. Not 
many years hence those soft eyes will look westward through 
exiles' tears to the home that is to know them no more. Some 
of those dainty hands must break the bitter bread of dependence, 
and some prepare the scanty meal of poverty." ^ Let us hope that 
the young couple had a merry honeymoon, unshadowed by the 
fates that were soon to overtake them. 

Unfortunately we have reason to believe that these sumptuous 
festivities in the Vassall house were frequently accompanied by 
a good deal of dissipation. Gaming for high stakes was a well- 
known family failing. The Colonel's brother William was left 
a handsome estate by his father's will " upon this special Proviso- 
and Condition, that he go before two Magistrates .... and 
solemnly make oath that for the future he will not play any 
Game whatsoever to the value of 20 s. at any one time." ^ His 
other brother John, who burned himself out at the early age of 
thirty-four, Avas described as " giving himself up to pleasure " 
and " spending his money in pleasures," both in the new world 
and the old.^ Only too accurately, it is to be feared, did the 
facetious Mr. Jabez Fitch, on observing, in 1775, the family 
crest of the goblet and the sun, deduce that the bearers thereof 

where I found Dr Russell who was married to Miss Betty on Monday Laat." 
J •' n Rowe, Dmry. 

^ John Holmes, " Harv'ard Square," Harvard Book, ii, 41. 

» Suffolk Probate, 33/210. 

* Waldron to Royall, Portsmouth, 1747 and 1748. Xew Hampshire Prov. 
Papera, vi, 43, 45, etc. It is only fair to state, per contra, that the little 
account book contains no entries that can be identified as losses at play. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 35 

were accustomed to drink wine by daylight.^ Indeed the only 
" pen picture " that we have of our hero is a sadly unfavorable 
one. It is attributed to the old family slave Darby, of whom 
more hereafter.^ According to his recollections many years later, 

" Col. Henry Vassall was a very wicked man. It was common 
remark that he was ^ the Devil.' He was a gamester and spent 
a great deal of money in cards and lived at the rate of ' seven 
years in three,' and managed to run out nearly all his property; 
so that Old Madam when she came back after the peace was 
very poor. He was a severe and tart master to his people; and 
when he was dying and asked his servants to pray for him, they 
answered that he might pray for himself." ^ 

Biassed and overdrawn as we may hope this description to be 
— especially as coming from one who declared to his dying 
day that George Washington himself was " no gentleman " * — 
yet it certainly receives ample confirmation in one respect. Adroit 
as he seems to have been in business matters, Henry Vassall's 
pecuniary position was apparently permanently precarious. His 

though there are a few purchases of the lottery tickets that were then 
so generally patronized. 

^ Mass. Hist. Soo. Proceedings, 2d Series, ix, 76. The goblet or vase, Few, 
sunnounted by the sun, Sol, formed one of those punning or " canting " 
devices so much affected by the English heralds whenever the bearer's name 
could be tortured into such shape. The most conspicuous and arrogant use 
of the device still remaining is to be seen on the cenotaph of John Vassall, 
St., — the occasion of Fitch's deduction. This, one of the familiar " table- 
shaped " tombs, displays no inscription whatever except the above emblems. 
It was to this that O. W. Holmes referred in his Camhridge Churchyard: 

" Or gaze upon yon pillared stone. 

The empty urn of pride; 
There stand the Goblet and the Sun — 

What need of more beside? 
Where lives the memory of the dead 

Who made their tomb a toy? 
Whose ashes press that nameless bed? 

Go, ask the village boy." 

The pride in these armorials seems to have been a family characteristic. 
Thus we find Miss Lucy, daughter of John Jr., at the age of fifteen employ- 
ing John Gore for " drawing a Coat of Arms," " painting the arms," and 
" Framing & Glazing Do." ( 1763-1764 ) . Middlesex Probate, 23339, Old Series. 

^ See page 74 et seq. 

' MS. notes by Dr. N. Hoppin circa 1855, in Christ Church papers. 

* See page 75. 



36 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

very start in life was far less generous than that given his 
brothers. He was only a younger son, and manifestly not a great 
favorite with his father.^ When old Leonard died in 1737 it 
was found that the principal provision made for the lad in the will 
was the transfer of £3000 Jamaica currency owing to the testator 
from his other son John. To suggest that this was one reason 
for Henry's leaving the island and seeking the well-stocked matri- 
monial market of Boston may be ungallant; but it must be 
admitted that his courtship of Penelope Royall began shortly 
after she had become an heiress in her own right. Even this 
advantageous match did not steer him clear of financial shoals. 
He began to be in straits for ready money as early as 1744, when, 
as we have seen, he borrowed £1000 from his mother-in-law, 
Madame Royall. The next year, like a true man of fashion, he 
owed Billings Bros., his Boston tailors, no less than £621.19, 
and became so deeply embarrassed that he sold some of his 
Jamaica property to his brother John, who as a part of the con- 
sideration agreed to discharge the above debt, along (presumably) 
with many others. 

This transaction, we may observe in passing, was the indirect 
cause of preserving to us the only known first-hand statement of 
our hero — giving us a glimpse of his mode of life and manner 
of doing business, as well as of his last sickness. In John's settle- 
ment with Billings a question arose as to the allowance to be 
made for the depreciation of the currency, a bone of contention 
that our more stable monetary system has happily buried. A 
long-standing dispute ensued, and finally the executors of the 
parties, now both deceased, carried the matter to the highest 
court. Among the papers in the case ^ occurs the following : 

I Henry Vassall do testify and swear that in the year 1746 I 
sold an Estate I had in Jamaica to my Brother John Vassall which 
was to be paid for at different Times and in different Ways, among 
the Rest he was to discharge a Bond I had given to Messrs. Billings's 
which he did & delivered to me, how he did it, I then knew not, 
from which Time I heard nothing of it untill the [year] 1763, when 

* He was, for instance, the only boy of the family whom the old gentle- 
man did not see fit to send through Harvard College. 

» Vassall V. Billings, No. 147649, " Early Court Files," Clerk's Office, 
SuprMne Judicial Court, Boston. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 37 

a Day or two after my Arrival from Antigua, Mr. Eichard Billings 
& Mr. Ezekiel Goldthwait came to my House and desired to speak 
with me, accordingly we went into my Garden, when Mr. Billings 
told me he had Some Difficulty in settling with my Nephew John 
Vassall and asked me about the settlement of the Bond, whether I 
could remember if I had allowed Depreciation, I told him all that 
I remembered was that there was such a Bond but it was so long ago 
that I did not recollect the Particulars of settling it, but imagined 
the Bond would shew it, he asked me to let him see the Bond, I 
told him I could not look for it then, but I should be in Boston 
in a few Days & that I would look for it & bring it with me, which 
I accordingly did & shewed it to Mr. Eich*^ Billings who desired 
me to let him have it to shew Mr. Goldthwait, I told him no, but 
I should be on Change at one of ye Clock where if Mr. Goldthwait 
came, he might see it, which he did and I shewed it to him. About 
a week or Ten Days after my Nephew Jno Vassall came to me and 
asked me whether I remembered any Thing about allowing Deprecia- 
tion to his Father on my Bond to the Billings's which his Father 
settled with them, because he had found among his Father^s Papers 
a note from the Billingss to allow his Father the Depreciation out 
of the Bond his Father had given them in Case I did not allow 
it; I told him that it was a great while ago, and that I did not 
recollect the Transaction, and that Mr. Billings had been with me 
on the same subject, and that I had told him the same, upon which, 
he desired I would endeavour to recollect the affair, for he said, if 
his Father had been allowed it, he did not desire it again, but that 
if his Father had not reed, it, it was but just they should allow 
it. Upon which I promissed him I would endeavour to recollect 
the settlement of the affair and which accordingly I endeavoured 
to do, when after a good while considering & recollecting several 
Circumstances, it brought the whole Transaction to my mind, 
which is as follows: my Brother John came to my House & tak- 
ing out the Bond from his Pocket, says, Harry, here is your 
Bond to the Billingss which they have assigned over to me with 
Depreciation which you may allow or not, it is nothing to me, I 
told him I should allow no Depreciation, upon which he said he 
would not if he was in my Place, accordingly I took a Eeceipt of 
him in full on the Back of the Bond and allowed him in the settle- 
ment for the amount of the Bond with its Interest as so much reed, 
in part pay for the Purchase he had made of me without allowing 

Depreciation then or since. _ 

Henry Vassall 

Cambridge March 24th, 1768. 



38 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

Middlesex ss: March 24th, 1768. 

Henry Vassall Esqr, subscriber to the above & foregoing Deposition 
being carefully examined & cautioned to testifie the whole Truth 
made oath to the Truth of the same, he the said Henry is under 
Buch bodily Infirmities & sickness as render him uncapable of travel- 
ling & appearing in Person at the Inferiour Court of Common Pleas 
now holden at Charlestown in & for the County of Middlesex at 
which Court there is a Cause depending — John Vassall Esqr. Pit. 
Richard Billings Deft, & in which Cause said Deposition was taken 
to be used. 

The proceeds of the Jamaica sale did not long suffice for his 
needs, and in 1748 we find him mortgaging his Cambridge prop- 
erty as security on a loan of £779 from James Pitts, a rich Boston 
merchant, whom we shall hear more of.^ In 1752 he recovered 
by due process of law - some £90 sterling on a note given in 
1746 by his brother John, now deceased, probably in coimection 
"with the Jamaica transactions. 

By what devices he tided over the deficits of the next few years 
we have little information,^ but it is probable that his wife's prop- 
erty formed the chief source of collateral, especially her undi- 
vided half of the " Popeshead " plantation at Antigua. The 
possibilities in that direction having apparently become exhausted 
by 1764, he was reduced to the necessity of borrowing some £430 
from his daughter, who had just emerged from her minority into 
the convenient ownership of a small separate estate.* The cash 
lasted him scarcely a month, and he became more deeply involved 
than ever. His creditors were pressing him hard and seemed 
about to take possession of Mrs. Vassall's equities remaining in the 

* Middlesex Deeds, 48/81. For Pitts's next entry in the drama, see 
page 56. 

' TdssaJl V. Bill et al. exors., " Inferiour Court " files, Clerk's Office, East 
Cambridge. 

' The accounts for 1757 and 1758 mention numerous " notes of hand " for 
various amounts, as well as the payment of a " Bond to John Gore for 
£112.19.8 L.M." and of semi-annual interest of £132 (old tenor) on "my Bond 
to Mrs. Henderson." 

* The sum was secured only by his personal bond, dated December 10, 1764. 
Soon after Elizabeth's marriage her husband insisted on something more sub- 
stantial, whereupon the Colonel blandly executed still another mortgage on the 
homestead February 20, 1769 — his last recorded act and a thoroughly char- 
axiteristic one. Middlesex Deeds, 68/588. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 39 

Antigua lands. In this crisis he consulted his fidus Achates, 
John Eowe, one of Boston's leading merchants, who has given a 
vivid picture of the gravity of the situation — the wife's anxiety, 
the family councils, the calling-in of friends among eminent 
lawyers and men of affairs : 

1765, Jan. 8th. Mrs. Vassall came from Cambridge on Certain Busi- 
ness and dind with Mrs. Rowe. 

23nd. Colo Henry Vassall & Lady came to town today about 
Business. 

Feb. 14th. Went afternoon to W°^ Vassals Esq'" and talkd over 
liis Brother Henrys Affairs. 

16th. dind at Colo Henry Vassall with M"^ W^ A^ assail & Chris: 
Minot M"-s Vassall & M^-^ Cutler 

18th. M'- W™ Vassall Colo^' Henry Vassall M"* Banister Mr 
Jnman Chris Minot & Colo Tho« Oliver dind with Mrs. Eowe & Me 
-after dinner we Consulted ab^ the Settlement of Colo Henry Vassalls 
affairs and after a long debate agreed on a plan of Settlement 

22nd H Vassall came to town 

28th. dind at M-^ \Y^ Vassalls with him & Wife M" S}Tues Miss 
€hristian & Miss Sally Vassalls Henry Vassal Esq^ & Lady Major 
John Vassall Colo. Oliver Colo Jerry Gridley Christo Minot This 
Afternoon M^ Henry Vassall & Wife executed the Deeds for the Farm 
.& ISTegroes at Antigua 

March 33d. Henry Vassall Esqr came after dinner and settled 
with me ^ 

These " deeds " took the shape of a formal partition of the 
Antigua property owned in common with Isaac Eoyall, whose 
.sister's half, euphoniously described as " charged with certain 
sums to Lane & Co.," was now set off to her by definite bounds. 
This moiety was then conveyed to trustees,^ one of whom seems 
to have been the obliging little Thomas Oliver, the Colonel's 
neighbor both at Popeshead and at Cambridge. The terms of 
the trust apparently ^ provided that the income from the planta- 

* MS. of Diary at Mass. Hist. Society. For the discovery of the above en- 
tries, and of other original sources, I must thank my friend, Charles M. An- 
drews, of Yale University. 

' Antigua Records, Lib. W, vol. ii, fol. 222, and Lib. 0. vol. 7, fol. 87. 
For the abstracts of these records I am indebted to the generous assistance 
of Vere L. Oliver, Esq., of Sunninghill, Berks., editor of Carihbeajui. 

' See page 60. 



40 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

tion should be used towards paying off the encumbrances with 
which it was so heavily burdened. In any case it is plain that 
practically nothing was added thereby to the Vassall till, for in 
a few months, after a final despairing trip to the islands,^ the 
much harassed Henry was obliged to sell his thirty acres across 
Charles River (already mortgaged to Pitts) to Ebenezer Bradish, 
the college glazier, for £506.^ 

Two years later, by some financial sleight-of-hand that again 
testifies to his business adroitness, he managed to mortgage once 
more his long-suffering homestead for £225, this time to his 
boon companion TroUet, whom the cards had perhaps favored.^ 
This, however, was only an accommodation between friends. His 
general credit was now as dissipated as his habits, and towards 
the end his wife had to negotiate what small loans she could 
secure on her own account.^ During his last years, too, it is plain 

* See page 27. 

* October, 1765. Middlesex Deeds, 65/146. It is a significant fact that the 
next year Henry Vassall's name, although it heads the list of Christ Church 
parishioners made out by the locum tenens, Rev. Mr. Agar, is not among those 
marked by that ingenuous divine as " very rich " — videlicet : .John Borland, 
William Vassall, John Apthorp, RaJph Inman, John Vassall, Thomas Oliver 
and Isaac Royall. (Original Letter-Book, Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, London.) 

» Middlesex Deeds, 67/205. 

* In 1767 and 1768, for example, she made a series of notes at regular in- 
tervals to her old friend Elizabeth Hughes, each for £26.13.4, perhaps to meet 
the interest on some other indebtedness. On these she was sued almost thirty 
years later! (No. 106852, " Early Court Files," Clerk's Office, Supreme Judicial 
Court, Boston. ) Another note of the same series, with interest endorsed up to 
July 20, 1769, is filed, apparently by mistake, with a collection of documents 
relating to William Vassall's lands in Pownalboro, 1776 et seq. Mass. Hist. 
Soc. Library, MSS. 026.2 " Vassall Papers." 

" Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes of Cambridge, singlewoman," is another of the 
shadowy figures that flit through the Vassall and Royall records. Her family 
were neighbors of the Royalls at " Popeshead." One of them, Captain Richard, 
migrated to Boston, where in 1713 he married Sarah Reed; and Elizabeth, born 
1719, was their child. Either in Antigua or at Boston she grew very friendly 
with the Royalls, for in 1746 old Madame Royall left her by will £300 " as a 
token of my love." Afterward she became either an inmate or a constant visi- 
tor at the Vassalls, and appears in the Colonel's accounts as receiving many 
small sums for " sundrys " and the like. Through the death of hor parents she 
came into some property in Boston, and hence was able to alleviate the finan- 
cial distresses of Mrs. Vassall. She died in 1771, leaving a number of the lat- 
ter's unpaid notes in her inventory. Her gravestone is in the Copp's Hill 
ground. See Oliver, History of Aniigua, ii, 88. Putnam, Lieut. Joshua Hewes, 
417. SufTolk Probate, 14929. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 41 

that the greater part of his personal property, horses, slaves, etc., 
was turned into sorely needed cash. Under such notorious cir- 
cumstances, therefore, it could have caused little surprise among 
the Cambridge gossips to learn after his death that he had not 
attempted to dispose of his shrunken and heavily hypothecated 
estate by will, and that the said estate (valued at only £1000 
for the realty and £705 for the personalty ^) was shortly declared 
insolvent. 

Considering the ample evidences of Henry Vassall's business 
ability, and the plump fortunes amassed by his brothers, and 
even allowing generously for the undoubted expense ^ of keeping 
up an establishment such as he delighted in, we must admit that 
it is difficult to explain where all his money went to, unless in 
some such manner as hinted above. Yet let us not frown too 
heavily on the failings of a Colonial gentleman of active spirit 
and ample leisure, who wrote Esquire after his name in a day 
when that suffix had a definite connotation. He had been born 
and bred amid the unexacting moral standards of a clime where 
the spirit of pleasure had permeated his very marrow. Trans- 
planted to a drier and more searching ethical atmosphere, his 
early inoculation (so to say) kept him immune from the scorch- 
ing breath of the superheated jSTew England conscience. Though 
he doubtless listened decorously enough to the fulminations of 
the orthodox ministry around him, in his own heart he felt free 

^ See Appendix A. In 1770, evidently before the Widow Vassall had made 
much further reduction in the estate, she was taxed 14/4 for the realty and 
8/9 for the personalty. Her fallen fortunes may be inferred from a compari- 
son of the taxes paid by the otlier members of her social set (Cambridge Tax 
List, 1770. Mass. Archives, 130/430) : 



Mr. & Mrs. Borland 


£1.9.8 real 


f6.16.ll personal 


William Brattle 


1.0.6 


3.17.7 


Ealph Inman 


1.14.5 


13.1 


Joseph Lee 


13.4 


2.17.9 


Richard Lechmere 


19.3 


2.9.6 


Thomas Oliver 


1.16.5 


1.3.0 


David Phips 


1.5.8 


15.5 


George Ruggles 


1.5.8 


3.6 


Jonathan Sewall 


11.8 


13.6 


John Vassall 


2.12.7 


14.2 



• The account book shows that in the years 1757 and 1758 his outlays for 
petty cash were about £9000 "old tenor," or £1200 lawful money (£900 ster- 
ling), per annum. 



42 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

to follow the example of the hard-riding, hard-drinking parsons 
of the good old school in " the established church." And if he 
shared their weaknesses, he also shared their bluff and open- 
handed virtues. 

For, paradoxical as it may appear, Henry Vassall, like his 
father before him, was a strong and generous supporter of reli- 
gion. As such he is honorably remembered to-day, when his 
imperfections have been long forgotten, like many a character 
more completely canonized. The Church of England, his family 
creed, naturally came first in his interests. To its representa- 
tives his latch-string was always out and his purse-strings always 
loose. At the age of only twenty-five he gave forty pounds 
towards the rebuilding of King's Chapel,^ and soon after the 
beautiful new edifice was finished he bought a pew. In maturer 
years he was elected a vestryman.^ The fragment of his accounts 
that we possess gives an idea of his steady assistance to that 
parish : 

1756 Apr. 26th. p** Capt. Forbes for my pew at y® Chappie £20.5 
Aug. 20 p"^ Craddock my Subscription to Dipper [the organ- 
ist] £10.10 

1758 Mar. 20th. tax of pew at Chappie £18.18 

1759 Apr. 9th. p^ tax & subscription to Chappie £42 

Trinity Church, too, had reason to be grateful for his aid. He 
was, for example, one of the largest contributors to its first organ, 
and on Christmas Day, 1758, increased its collection by some 
twenty pounds. 

All this time he was paying his regular " ministerial taxes " 
in Cambridge and Abraham Hasey's as well. More than that, 
he was displaying an admirably liberal spirit by subscribing 
handsomely to the new " meeting house " that Dr. Appleton was 
erecting there: 

1756, Nov. 19th. pd. Sam'l Whittemore one third of my subscrip- 
tion to y^ meeting house £50 

1757, Sept. 17th. S. Whittemore being in full of my Subscription 
to the meeting house in Cambridge £100 

' Adding the rather unusual but highly business-like proviso, — " One half 
to be paid when begun." 

' Foote, Annals of KUig's Chcpel, ii, passim. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 43 

Therein also he took a pew, one of the best, " between Lt. Col. 
David Phipp's pew on the right and Eev. Mr. President Holyoke's 
on the left." ^ 

Most memorable of all, he was the leader of the movement in 
1759 for establishing Christ Church in Cambridge.- He headed 
the petition to enlist the aid of the London Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; he subscribed £80 
to the building fund; he cajoled £15 more out of the repre- 
lensible Trollet and actually persuaded him to take a pew; he 
was chairman of the building committee ; ^ he bought a pew 
(]^o. 3) in the middle aisle, and he served as a vestryman,* 
in either first or second place on the list, continuously from the 
organization of the parish till the day of his death. Perhaps in 
recognition of his services he was given the privilege of building 
the only tomb beneath the church.^ 

In that tomb he was duly laid, with characteristic elegance, 

^ See plan of pews in Paige, 293. He sold it to Harvard College in 1761, 
after Christ Church had been opened. Middlesex Deeds, 58/502. 

' " Several branches of our Braintree family of Vassalls had removed and 
planted themselves in the very front of the university, and they must have an 
Episcopal church." J. Adams to Morse, Quincy, December 2, 1815. Works of 
John Adams, x, 187. 

^ " Voted that Colo Henry Vassall make some enquiries, and take such meas- 
ures as he shall think proper, about procuring Stone and Lime for building the 
Church." Records, October 3, 1759. 

* Though for some unexplained reason never as a warden, a position fre- 
quently occupied by his nephew John, and indeed by nearly all the prominent 
Cambridge Tories in turn. 

^ The parish records are silent on the subject, but it seems probable that, 
sensible of his approaching dissolution, he caused his last resting place to be 
constructed during the progress of his final malady. 

The tomb is a brick vault, 9 by 10 feet in area, sunk in the gravel of the 
cellar floor. Its slightly arched top was originally almost flush with the sur^ 
face, but owing to a recent lowering of the grade, now protrudes for about a 
foot. Its main axis is east and west, or transverse to that of the church build- 
ing. The door, at the west end, was originally reached by a flight of stone 
steps, now removed and filled in. Against the upper part of the bricked-up 
entrance arch, and projecting above ground, has been erected a slate slab in- 
scribed Henry Vasseix. The structure is now almost in the middle of the 
cellar, but before the lengthening of the church it was much nearer the chancel 
— probably directly Ijelow the pew of its owner, who had one of the best seats 
in the edifice, although the exact location is conjectural to-day. At least the 
tomb is not centred on the main axis of the clmrch, but is pushed a little to 
the west, so as to bring it, not under the middle aisle, but under a pew on the 
right-hand side thereof. 

For the interments in the Vassall tomb see note, page 78. 



44 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

when a lingering illness had brought his gay life to a close — 
after that fitful fever sleeping well amid the old Cambridge sur- 
roundings that he loved, happy in escaping the fast-approaching 
tribulations which were to allot scattered and distant graves to 
his family and friends who kept allegiance to the King's most 
excellent majesty, his crown and dignity. The Boston papers 
for Monday, March 20, 1769, contained the following item: 

On Friday laft Col. Heney Vassall departed this Life in the 48th 
Year of Age, at his Seat in Cambridge. We hear that he will be in- 
terrM if the Weather permits, on Wednesday next, and that the 
Funeral will go precifely at 4 o'Clock in the Afternoon.^ 

The service took place as announced, a typical March gale being 
only the weather t-o be expected. Thanks to trusty John Rowe, 
we actually have the scene before us — unique of its kind in the 
annals of Christ Church: 

1769, March 22. Wed. Very Cold Blows hard N.West. Dined at 
Mr. Inman at Cambridge with him, Mr. Cromwell, Lady Frankland,* 
Mrs. Harding, Miss Molly Wethered, Mrs. Rowe & George Inman. In 
the afternoon I went to the Funerall of Henry Yassall Esq. I was a 
pall-holder, together with Gen. Brattle, Col. Phipps, Jos. Lee Esq., 
Rich*^ Lechmere Esq. & Robert Temple Esq. It was a very handsome 
Funerall & a great number of people & carriages. 

Ill 

The Widow Penelope after these elaborate obsequies continued, 
as best she could, to occupy the stripped and mortgaged home- 
stead. We have a sight of her entertaining a mighty genteel 
company, " drinking tea and coffee," on the occasion of the 
christening of her namesake — her daughter's baby, Penelope 
Russell.^ She dutifully began the attempt to pay off her hus- 

* Boston Post Boy d Advertiser. Similar notices are in each of the other 
papers, except that the Boston Evening Post adds " after a lingering Illness." 
We have seen (page 38) that he was too sick to go to Charlestown just a year 
before. The register of Christ Church gives his death on the 17th, but no men- 
tion of his burial. 

' Lady Frankland with her son Henry Cromwell had returned to Boston and 
Hopkinton in June of the previous year, after the death of her husband at 
Bath. They were particular friends of the Inmans, and intimate with the 
whole Cambridge coterie. A touch of romance is added to Henry Vassall's 
funeral by the presence of " the beautiful Agnes Surriage." 

» Rowe, Diary, April 9, 1769, Cf. Christ Church register and Harris, The 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 45 

band's debts, probably with the aid of the Rojalls and the 
Russells.-^ To raise funds she evidently strained her slender re- 
sources to the utmost, as is shown in the pitiful appraisal of her 
property remaining in 1778.^ But the earnest efforts of a re- 
duced gentlewoman to satisfy her vicarious creditors gave her 
little popular sympathy, so long as she echoed the sentiments 
and followed the fortunes of that unhappily prominent Cambridge 
faction that persisted in its loyalty to King George. 

Herein lay her undoing. Penelope Vassall's temperament was 
of the type that copies rather than originates. From her family 
characteristics, her early environment, and her later history we 
picture her as lacking in nearly all the sturdier 'New England 
virtues. The scanty traces she has left on the narrative of her 
generation are as pale as if recorded with disappearing ink. She 
seems to have been too frail to rear the large family that was 
then customary. Her portrait, painted in her younger days, 
shows her as small and delicate, with little individuality. The 
few remaining specimens of her handwriting are unformed and 
crude to the point of childishness. In a crisis she possessed 
neither the firmness for independent action that might have car- 
ried the day, nor the prudent self-effacement that might have 
enabled her, along with such ultra-moderates as her neighbor. 
Judge Lee, to lie by while the storm passed overhead. 

The latter course she could have followed Avith comparative 
ease. There is no record that either she or her husband had ever 
adopted an attitude that gave grounds for any active hostility 
from the " sons of liberty." He had held no royal offices, signed no 
" loyal addresses," or taken other steps that would have rendered 
his memory obnoxious. He had not been a member of that inner 
ring of Tories upon whom the full weight of revolutionary wrath 

Vassalls of New England, 22. Mr. and Mrs. Rowe " stood Sponsors." In 1757 
Mrs. Vassall had been a " surety " along with Gov. Benning Wentworth and 
Charles Paxton at the baptism of young Benning at King's Chapel, Boston. 
{Wentioorth Genealogy, i, 534.) That seems to be almost the only mark she 
has left on the records of her time, up to her husband's death. It suggests at 
least the society in which she moved. 

* TroUet assigned his mortgage to her in 1770 for £266.13.4. (Middlesex 
Deeds, 71/18.) In June of 1773 she got £490 ready money from George Minot, 
who then paid off a mortgage of which she had become assignee. (Suffolk 
Deeds, 121/129, margin.) 

' See page 55 and Appendix B. For the sale of the slaves see page 68. 



46 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

descended. On the contrary he was plainly far from unpopular 
with his townsmen.-' Even the motto on his crest chimed closely 
with their underlying thought in the earlier days of the struggle — 
" Often for King, for Country always." ^ His remaining property 
was, alas, scarcely enough to excite a beggar's cupidity. And since 
he had been dead for nearly six years before affairs reached the 
climax, it is conceivable that his spouse, had she remained quietly 
on the homestead, might well have avoided serious molestation. 

Had she realized it, indeed, nothing would have served her 
so well as sticking to the ship. In those days of fantastic mis- 
trust, steadfastness when surrounded by the insurgents seemed 
to prove one's sympathy with their cause; flight showed one's 
adherence to the established order. The paradox was widely 
accepted as a test by both sides. Thus, the Secretary of the So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel based his conviction of 
one of its missionaries for treachery on the theory that " if 
Mr. Bass had been truly loyal, I can't see how it was possible 
for him to stay at Newburyport, a place so much in favor of the 
other part." ^ Per contra, even the estimable " Ebenezer Bradish, 
Jun. Esq.," who happened to " withdraw himself from Cambridge 
and retire to Boston on the day of the late unhappy commence- 
ment of hostilities," so " increased the publick suspicions against 
him, whereby he is rendered more odious and disagreeable to his 
countrymen," that he required an imposing certificate from a 
number of leading patriots to prevent the impression that he was 
" a person unfriendly to the just rights and liberties of his 
Country." * But as for Penelope Vassall, with the fatal facility 
for imitation that sometimes marks the feminine mind, she did as 
her fashionable friends and neighbors did, and during the memo- 

* A curious confirmation of his amicable relations with his neighbors is to 
be found in the almost total absence of his name from the court records of his 
time, while his brothers John and William and his nephew John figure in some 
rather famous suits. (Cf. Paige, History of Cambridge, 131, etc.) It will be 
noticed, too, that none of his numerous mortgagees took advantage of their 
foreclosure rights as long as his widow continued to occupy the premises, but 
Beem to have accorded her every consideration. 

* Saepe pro rege, semper pro republica. Tlie radicalism of the sentiment so 
grated upon the loyalty of his nephew, John Vassall, that he abandoned its use 
altogether. 

' Bartlett, Frontier Missionary, 313. 

* Force, American Archives, Ifth Series, ii, 484. May 3, 1775. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 47 

rable winter of 1774-75 ^ followed them into Boston to seek the 
protection of Thomas Gage. From that moment the die was cast. . 
By the date of the Battle of Lexington her son-in-law, Dr. 
Kussell, correctly diagnosing certain feverish symptoms in the 
body politic, was discreetly embarked for Martinico, probably with 
his wife and family, which now numbered several daughters.^ 
(Henry Vassall had neither sons nor grandsons.) The Widow 
seems to have lingered to save what she could from the old home ; 
for after it was seized by the provincials, her " packages " of 
personal belongings, which Heaven knows must have been atten- 
uated enough,^ were graciously allowed to " pass into Boston or 
elsewhere." * A quaint exception was made of her medicine chest, 
long a carefully cherished family treasure.^ It was too valuable 
to be lost to the Continental medical corps. For some time, in- 
deed, it was one of the only two supply boxes they possessed.® 

^ The precise date is difficult to determine. She would naturally follow the 
movements of her nephew, John Vassall, across the road. Foote says the latter 
was driven out of town by a mob early in 1775 {Amials of King's Chapel, ii, 
315), but this seems to lack confirmation. The certificate of the Cambridge 
selectmen who confiscated his property states that he " went to our Enemies in 
April 1775," but the word " April " is struck through with the pen. (Middle- 
sex Probate, 23340, O.S.) Mrs. Vassall's brother, Isaac Royall, did not defi- 
nitely retire from his Medford mansion until April 16. (Suffolk Probate, 
85/531.) It is unquestionably picturesque to refer to the "flight" of the 
Tories into Boston, but " straggle " is a more accurate term. 

^ Harris, Vassalls of New England, 21. 

' A far richer and more influential personage. Lady Frankland, on retiring 
from Hopkinton, was allowed to take only " 6 trunks, 1 chest, 3 beds and bed- 
ding, 6 wethers, 2 pigs, 1 small keg of pickled tongues, some hay, 3 bags of 
corn and such other goods as she thinks proper." The elastic interpretation 
placed upon the final clause, and the alarming consequences, provide both en- 
tertainment and instruction for the reader of the Amerioan Archives. 

* Committee of Safety Journals, May 13, 1775. In the first confusion over 
the disposition of the Loyalists' abandoned property, we find " Mr. David 
Sanger directed to fill the widow Vassall's barns with hay," on July 4, and a 
couple of days later Mr. Seth Brown ordered " to clear the widow Vassal's 
barns for the reception of hay and horses for the colony service," etc. (Idem, 
586, 587.) The house itself was by this time in active use as medical head- 
quarters. (See page 53.) 

^ "Jan. 1, 1757. pd. mending key Medecine Chest, &c, £1:6." (Account 
book, uhi supra. ) This private drug-store, for it appears to have been no less, 
affords, like the family fire-engine, another instance of the unusual elaboration 
of the household arrangements. Colonel Vassall was e^•idently prepared to cope 
with inflammatory conditions of every description. See also p. 81, middle. 

° The other was in Roxhury. See report of committee, June 12, 1775. Jour- 
nala of Provincial Congress, 323. 



48 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

With her pathetic scraps of salvage, therefore, our Penelope 
turned toward her family estates in Antigua.^ There is a quite 
believable story that in the haste and bewilderment of her start 
she had to take along a certain Miss Moody, related to the Pep- 
perells of Kittery, a damsel who happened to be staying with 
her and who could find no opportunity of getting home again. 
In the West Indies, according to the tradition, while waiting a 
chance to return, this unintentional refugee was courted, mar- 
ried, and finally settled down for life.^ 

But to reach Antigua was now no easy matter. Dr. Russell 
must have sailed on one of the last ships that left Boston for the 
Caribbean, and by the time that his mother-in-law had decided on 
any definite course of action the only port where she could hope 
to embark was Salem — probably the " elsewhere " specifically 
in mind when her property pass was issued to her. Thither her 
brother had already betaken himself with the same object, and 
thither she seems to have followed him. Both were doomed to 
disappointment. Xot a passage to the southward could be pro- 
cured. In this dilemma Isaac Royall determined " with great 
reluctance " to push on to Halifax and thence to England, giving 
the abject excuse that " my health and business require it." ' 

* Winsor, Memorial History of Boston,, iii, 111. Harris, VassalU of New 
England, 14. 

' The Cambridge of 1776, 100. The tale is substantiated to the extent that 
the first William Pepperell's granddaughter, Mary Jackson, born 1713, married 
a man named Moody. (Howard, Pepperells in America, 17.) The name was 
oommon in the Pepperell neighborhood, at Kittery, York, etc. It is also found, 
however, in the records of Montserrat. The man in question, for example, may 
have been George Moody, bom there in 1726. {Caribbeana, i, 43.) If so, the 
young lady would naturally have foimd herself very much at home in the West 
Indies. It was also natural that she should put herself under the protection 
of Madame Vassall, for the latter's niece, Elizabeth Royall, had married 
" Young Sir William " Pepperell when he assumed his grandfather's title in 
1767. As the baronet and his wife sailed for England in 1775, it is quite under- 
standable that a relative who really wished to go to the islands should have 
kept with Mrs. Vassall. 

For the following interesting variant on the tradition I am indebted to 
Henry Vassall's great-great-grand-nephew, John Vassall Calder, Esq., who still 
occupies a part of the Jamaica property at Worthy Park : " As you are aware, 
at the time of the RcTOlution the Vassalls had to flee from Boston, and it ia 
said they left a girl with her nurse who was never heard of. About fifty years 
ago my Grandmother got a letter from a woman who claimed relationship as 
being the descendant of tlie lost girl ; she never answered the letter." 

• Brooks, History of Medford, 147. Foote, Annals of King's Chapel, ii, 311. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 49 

From a step so bold and unaccustomed Penelope Vassall recoiled. 
One more chance remained for carrying out her original plan. 
Bidding her brother (as it proved) a last farewell, she joined one 
of the parties of Tories who in the panic after the first blood- 
letting of the war hurried off to ISTantucket, on the well-founded 
assumption that that shrewdly self-centred and ultra-pacific 
Quaker community would prove a sort of neutral territory or 
safety-zone. Among these Loyalists was Mrs. Mary Holyoke of 
Salem, whose connections in Cambridge had often brought her to 
that village. Debarking at the island on April 29th, she records 
in her diary and letters the numerous acquaintances that flocked 
thither for weeks afterwards. On May 21st she notes, — " Mrs. 
Vassal & Fitchs ^ Family arrived." And on June 2nd, — " Drank 
tea [ !] yesterday at old Friend Husseys with Friend Vassel." ^ 

ISTo further mention of Mrs. Vassall at Nantucket occurs, and 
it is to be supposed that among the extensive shipping of that sea- 
faring population ^ she soon found opportunity to fulfil her in- 
tention of sailing for Antigua. Her destination once reached, 
however, proved but a gloomy haven of refuge. Her own patri- 
mony at " Popeshead," by transactions already narrated,* was no 
longer at her disposal, and she not improbably sheltered herself 
on the adjacent plantation of her brother, where she was joined 
by the Russells. But conditions on the island were now very 
different from those of her girlhood there. Her elegant, affluent 
friends were gone. Times were bad. The sugar market had 
been paralyzed by the war. The cost of the simplest commodi- 
ties had quadrupled.^ The estates were neglected. Many were 
abandoned altogether and overrun by the peculiar rank grass 
that is the bane of Antiguan agriculture. The seasons, too, 

* Samuel Fitch, the Boston lawyer, was a noted Tory, proscribed in 1778. 
Like most of the other Nantucket refugees, he soon plucked up courage and 
returned to the mainland. He stayed out the Siege of Boston, and at the 
Evacuation went to Halifax with a family of seven. 

' Dow, The Holyoke Diaries, 87 and 88, n. Some of the Nantucket Husseya 
owned lands in Cambridge. 

' The widespread commercial interests of Nantucket at this period made it 
almost as important a point of departure for travellers as is New York City 
to-day. During the Revolution the West India trade was continued pertina- 
ciously, its danger being more than compensated by its profit. 

* See page 39. 

' Southey, Chronological History of the West Indies, ii, 425. 



50 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

were unpropitious ; a series of disastrous droughts and terrific 
hurricanes added to the ruin. One after another the planters 
went down in financial wreck.^ Most of the non-resident owners, 
now a thousand leagues overseas, could no longer make their 
trips of inspection; and their local agents, always sufficiently- 
unscrupulous, were busily feathering their own nests with what, 
remained. Matters went from bad to worse. In 1778 there was. 
no crop whatever, tlie drought having destroyed all the cane.^ 
In 1779 " every part of the surface of the ground became parched 
up, and all the ponds were dry. The importation of water was. 
altogether insufficient to supply the demand. The stock and 
negroes perished in the greatest agony; and a malignant fever 
at the same time threatened total destruction to all." ^ In 1780- 
81 the climax of Mrs. Vassall's own misfortunes came with the- 
deaths of her son-in-law, Dr. Russell, her last male protector, 
and her pusillanimous brother, Isaac Royall, who, ignoring his 
sister in his will, devised his plantation to his own child, Eliza- 
beth.^ Mrs. Russell, now thrown with her daughters upon her 
mother's hands, thus definitively empty, was like her parent the 
guileless victim of her own countr^nnen's revengeful greed. Her 

* A visitor in 1787 wrote: "This country is poor, most of the landholders 
being impoverished from a series of bad crops previous to the last three year's. 
In fact, the greater part of the estates in this island are in trust, or under 
mortgage to the merchants of London, Liverpool and Bristol." Luff man. Brief 
Account of the Island of Antigua, 49. 

In Jamaica, from 1772 to 1791, more than one-third of the planters passed 
through bankruptcy, and a considerable proportion of the plantations was given 
up. ( See the sympathetic and comprehensive account by Phillips, " A Jamaica. 
Slave Plantation," America/n Hist. Revieic, xix, 543.) John Vassall stated that 
he " had £3,000 a year coming in from his Jamaica Estate before the Hurri- 
cane " — a particularly calamitous visitation occurred in 1780 — and "His. 
Estate having suffered considerably by the Hurricane, is the Cause of it's not 
having produced him anything since 1781," so that "he has laid down his. 
Coach & given up his House [at Clapham] & lives at Bristol." (1783-84.) 
American Loyalists Transcripts, iv, 388 and vii, 180. New York Public Library. 

» Edwards, History of the West Indies, (1793) i, 447. 

» Southey, Chronological Hist. W. I., h, 459. 

* Suffolk Probate, 85/531. She had married Sir William Pepperell (Spar- 
hawk), who is accordingly described later as "owner of Royalls, Antigua." 
(Oliver, History of Antigua, iii, 56.) The place was evidently in no condition 
to attract him as a residence, for he soon sold it to Thomas Oliver (cf. p. 60, n) 
and continued to live in England till his death in 1816. It may be added that 
the desolated state of the West Indies, and the serious interruption of com- 
munication with them, account for the appearance in England of many Loyalists 
who might have been expected to take refuge on their own insular possessions. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 51 

husband's property at home had been confiscated, and he himself 
forbidden to return.^ Mother, daughter, and granddaughters 
formed a sad illustration of the familiar axiom that the Loyalists 
seemed to leave naught behind them but homeless widows and 
unprovided orphans, — whose sufferings tempt us to go a step be- 
yond the poet's line and add that even when it is not fated that 
men must work, still women must weep. 

It was at about this time that poor Penelope, lonely and bereft, 
gathered her little flock about her and, giving a last good-bye 
to her childhood's home, returned with a sort of childish hopeful- 
ness to the scene of her married life. Yet how changed that 
scene! Marius among the ruins of Carthage was a thing of joy 
and gladness compared to a Loyalist in Cambridge after the 
Revolution, The college, it is true, with the placid persistence 
of an institution whose thoughts were not of this world, still 
calmly ground out, much as of yore, its annual grist of ministers. 
But the once thriving village, famed for its beauty, with its com- 
mon " like a bowling green," was almost unrecognizable. Spared, 
to be sure, from the actual ravages of the enemy that had deso- 
lated Portland, 'New Haven, and others of its ilk, it yet had 
endured the almost equally severe handling of a year's occupa- 
tion by an ill-disciplined militia ^ and the hard usage of another 
year as a prison camp. Dwellings had been maltreated, fences 
torn away, tillage laid waste, timber and shade trees felled, roads 
ruined, and farms '' thrown open, cut up and broken to pieces." ^ 
"Oh!" wrote a visitor to the famous Inman place after the 
Siege of Boston, " that imagination could replace the wood lot, 
the willows round the pond, the locust trees that so delightfully 
ornamented and shaded the roads leading to this farm . . . but 
in vain to wish it, — every beauty of art or nature, every elegance 
which it cost years of care and toil in bringing to perfection, is 
laid low. It looks like an unfrequented desert, and this farm 

* " Charles Russell of Lincoln, physician," was included in the Proscription. 
Act of October 16, 1778. Mass. Province Laics, v, 914. 

^ One excuse offered for the vile accommodations given the Convention 
Troops a year and a half afterward was " the late Devastation and Destruction 
of the Neighbourhood." Burgoyne to Laurens, Cambridge, February 11, 1778. 
Colonial Office Class 5, vol. 95, "p. 385. Public Record Office, London. 

" Dana to Heath. York Town, December 8, 1777. Mass. Hist. Soc. Collec- 
tions, 7th Series, iv, pt. ii, 191. 



52 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

is an epitome of all Cambridge, [once] the loveliest village in 
America." ^ Dilapidated store-sheds,^ with the ragged cellar- 
holes and ditches of vanished encampments, disfigured the centre 
of the town; gaunt heaps of dismantled earthworks encumbered 
the approaches; and ramshackle barracks, already falling to 
decay, rattled and swayed in the winds that swept the surround- 
ing hilltops. The very tombs of the dead in the town burying 
ground had been despoiled of their leaden inscription-panels. The 
living population was miserably reduced in every sense of the 
word. Of the natives, many had moved away,^ others had en- 
tered the army, and some had fallen on the field of battle. Of 

^ Letters of James Murray, Loyalist, 246. (April 17, 1776.) General 
Greene wrote, Dec. 31, 1775: "We have suffered prodigiously for want of 
wood. . . . notwithstanding we have burnt up all the fences and cut down all 
the trees for a mile round the camp." An account of the insurgents in a Lon- 
don paper observes, — " They have burnt all the fruit-trees and those planted 
for ornament in the environs of Cambridge." Frothingham, Siege of Boston, 
276 and n. 

^ " The town of Cambridge is about six miles from Boston, and was the 
country residence of the gentry of that city ; there are a number of fine houses 
in it going to decay, belonging to the Loyalists. The town must have been ex- 
tremely pleasant, but its beauty is much defaced, being now only an arsenal for 
military stores." (Letter of November 30, 1777. Anburey, Travels through 
America, ii, 67.) For the curious continuance of Cambridge as a military 
depot up to recent times, see the article by A. M. Howe, " Tlie Arsenal and the 
Guns on the Common," Cambridge Hist. Soc. Proceedings, vi, 5. 

' Overshadowed by the more dramatic departure of the Tories, the much 
larger exodus of the natives from Cambridge in 1775-76 has escaped general 
attention. With the very first hostilities the women and children all left town 
(Letter of Mrs. Inman, Cambridge, April 22, 1775. Lettei's of James Murray, 
Loyalist, 184) , followed almost immediately by the entire personnel of Harvard 
College, including all the transient and many of the hitherto permanent ele- 
ments of the population. Substantial citizens of two opposite classes also dis- 
appeared, the militarists enlisting in the army and the pacifists seeking a less 
warlike environment. Among them were many landholders. The tax list for 
1777 (preserved in Mass. Archives, 322/123) gives 191 taxpayers in the 
village itself, 124 in Menotomy, 87 " south of Charles River," and 96 " non- 
residents." The names are all indigenous: no account is taken of Tx)yalist 
absentees or their confiscated estates. That year's total of 498 polls continued 
to decrease, until in 1781 there were but 417 (Mass. Archives, 161/369) ; and 
even as late as 1822 the number of voters was only 475 (Paige, 448) . 

A striking efi"ect of tliis exodus is found in a comparison of the census fig- 
ures for 1765 and 1776. (Paige, History of Cambridge, 452.) During that in- 
terval most Massachusetts towns of 1500 population had increased to 1900-odd. 
In Cambridge this normal increase was completely wiped out by the hegira of 
the final two years, so that the net gain in eleven years was only about a dozen 
persons. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 53 

the old aristocracy, the Phipses and the Inmans, the Ruggleses 
and the Borlands, the Lechmeres and the Olivers, were gone, 
never to return. The local trades and industries that once sup- 
plied their numerous minor wants were well-nigh extinguished. 
The plentiful golden sovereigns that used to jingle in many a 
townsman's pocket had been replaced by infrequent scraps of dirty 
and almost valueless paper. The beautiful little church that 
Henry Vassall had practically founded was desecrated and closed ; 
its jovial English parson was a penniless paralytic, dying by 
inches at Bath in the old country. Bitterest sight of all was the 
former homestead, fast deteriorating in heedless plebeian hands, 
after a series of vicissitudes so rapid, varied, and bizarre that a 
stouter heart than the Widow's might well have stood aghast at 
their recital. 

Penelope Vassall's abandonment of the property, indeed, may 
be said to have been the first episode of a chapter in which the 
history of the estate, long mounting in interest and brilliancy like 
the glittering ascent of a rocket, suddenly " broke " in a cluster 
of spectacular incidents that seem by contrast to throw into deeper 
shadow its subsequent descent to the commonplace dinginess of 
to-day. The first and most harrowing metamorphosis had begun 
under her very eyes, when the home that had sheltered her for 
thirty-three years was seized by the revolutionists for their mili- 
tary hospital. That term at its best in the eighteenth century 
connoted something incomprehensible to the reader of the twen- 
tieth, but in the conditions at Cambridge in the spring of 1775 
it implied a scene of confusion, misery, and horror that at first 
appeared little better than a shambles.-^ Without the benefits 
either of reasonable foresight or of previous experience, without 
time for preparation, without sufiicient accommodations, without 
system, without a regular staff, without medicines, instruments, 
or appliances, without (of course) anaesthetics — save rum — this 
last refuge for the sick and dying might have seemed about to 
take a place in medical annals almost on a level with Libby Prison 
or the Black Hole of Calcutta. But New England physicians 

* " We see Doct. Turner perform the oflSce of surgery ( or rather of butchery ) 
on one Jones of Capt. Ripley's Company, who had a great mortification sore on 
his side. After we had seen the aforesaid operation with great pity to the 
patient we came home." Diary of Jabez Fitch, Mass. Hist. Society Proceed- 
ings, Second Series, ix, 88. 



54 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

have never lacked courage and resource. Their own vigorous 
efforts were soon seconded by the best medical talent from the 
other colonies and directed by the administrative genius of Wash- 
ington. Affairs took on a new complexion, the principal diffi- 
culties of the situation were gradually overcome, and before the 
end of the Siege of Boston the Vassall house had attained well- 
merited historic fame as the original headquarters of the Conti- 
nental medical department.^ 

^\^len finally abandoned by the military authorities the Widow 
Vassall's property, as she subsequently learned, had been promptly 
seized by the civil, as coming under the legislative resolve just 
passed which confiscated the estates of persons who were " Ene- 
mical to the Colony and have fled to Boston or elsewhere for 
Protection." ^ Unable to make a better disposition of it, the 
committee leased it for £15 a year to *' Capt. Adams of Charles- 
town." ^ In him w^e probably discern Nathan Adams, veteran 
of the French War, later carpenter and innkeeper by turns, whose 
own house at Charlestown had been burned during the affair at 
Bunker's Hill.'' 

In his new domicile he soon had opportunity to revive his old 
calling and play the host to unexpectedly distinguished guests. 
For on the 6th and 7th of November, 1777, Cambridge found itself 
invaded by the enemy in greater numbers and with more serious 
results than at any other period of its revolutionary history. These 
warriors, to be sure, bore neither arms nor malice against the 
town, being in short the heterogeneous horde of British and Hes- 
sians who made up the " Convention Troops " under Burgoyne,, 

* For a detailed study of this subject see the second part of this paper. 

* Such was the paraphrase of the Cambridge committee in its report. ( 1776. 
Mass. Archives, 154/48.) The actual language of the resolve (April 19, 1776) 
referred to those who " have fled to Boston in the late time of distress to secure 
themselves," thus ingeniously setting up cowardice as a test of loyalty. The 
whole shameful history of the Confiscation Acts may be found in Goodell's in- 
valuable compilation, Mass. Province Laws, v, 706 and 999. See also the 
ilhuninating commentary of Davis, John Chandler's Estate, ch. iii. 

' 1776. Mass. Archives, 154/48. This rental was much the smallest of any 
of the Cambridge confiscated estates — additional evidence of the condition of 
the property. 

* Robert Adams History, 12. Cf. Hunnewell, A Century of Totcn Life, 134, 
156. In like manner a number of other mansions of the Cambridge Tories after 
confiscation were leased to various Charlestown refugees, by a kind of poetie 
justice. 




ini.i\RV \ASSALL HOUSE— EAST STAIRCASE 
The great dining-room bcj-ond 



1915.] COL. HEKEY VASSALL 55 

on their way from the fatal field of Saratoga to the transports 
that were expected soon to embark them at Boston and return 
them to England, according to agreement. The Colonel's home- 
stead and the Captain's temporary leasehold was, not inappro- 
priately, one of the very first edifices taken for housing the 
ofiicers of the British contingent, its tenant displaying a willing- 
ness to receive them that contrasts sharply with the churlish at- 
titude unfortunately adopted by the townspeople in general. Had 
they followed his example, indeed, not only would the annals 
of Cambridge have been spared a deep blemish, but the whole 
history of the Convention Troops, and thus of the later stages 
of the Revolution itself, might have been very different from the 
actual outcome.^ As it befell, however, the expected speedy em- 
barkation was postponed indefinitely, and the notorious stand 
taken by the American Congress as to the fulfilment of the Sara- 
toga Convention resulted in the occupation of the house by the 
captives for a full year. 

'Not until ISTovember, 17 Y8, were the last of the luckless troops 
and subordinate ofiicers marched away from Cambridge on the 
succeeding stage of their phantasmal journey to freedom, and 
Henry Vassall's mansion bade a final farewell to the scarlet and 
gold of that royal uniform which he himself had been wont to 
don. Then it was that the old house, already headquarters- 
hospital, prison and barracks, sank to the lowest level of its mili- 
tary history and became mere loot. Tired of the farce of " pre- 
serving " and " improving " property which they never intended 
the owners should repossess, the Massachusetts authorities ordered 
a general sale of the Loyalists' remaining estates. " William 
How, trader," of Cambridge was the " agent " for what poor 
personalty of Madame Vassall's could still be ferreted out by her 
zealous and " patriotic " fellow to"\\Tismen.- The " vendue " took 
place April 1, 1779, with ironical solemnity and every outward 
form that could give a color of legality to this final act of injus- 
tice.^ Everything went, from the tattered wreck of the great 

^ For fuller consideration of this matter see post, as above. 

== Mass. Archives, 154/332. 

* Certificate of Selectmen, June 1, 1778; order for inventory, June 8, 1778; 
inventory dated June 24, 1778. (See Appendix B) ; commissioners sworn Jan- 
uary 11, 1779; sale, April 1, 1770; agent's accoixnt allowed and filed Decern- 



56 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

chariot to " 3 beehives," from which, as from other lordlier homes, 
the Tory drones had long ago flown. Nearly all the useful 
articles having already disappeared, the bulk of the sale-catalogue 
was composed of the pictures, mostly put up in arbitrary lots of 
half-a-dozen, and knocked down to whichever of the local Brad- 
ishes. Palmers, Reads, Prentices, and Wyeths would take them. 
The total realized the apparently imposing sum of £275 — in 
paper, or " old Emission," but worth in " silver money £25." ^ 

The realty, though it could not be treated so cavalierly, was 
disposed of quite as effectually. The Act of 1780, by which 
" absentee " estates were to be sold at auction, excepted such as 
were under mortgage before April 19, 1775 — of course with the 
understanding that the mortgagee was a good '' friend of liberty." 
Whether by virtue of his unquestioned prominence in such a 
capacity, or by a technical priority of claim, the almost forgotten 
James Pitts, the Colonel's creditor of 1748,^ now reappears upon 
the scene. As a matter of fact he reappears only in name, since 
he had died in 1776. But he had left behind as executor his 
enterprising and equally " patriotic " son John. As soon as the 
Legislature, of which the latter was a member, began to consider 
the above action, he evidently took steps to secure his testator's 
long-dormant and possibly doubtful claims to the Vassall place, 
cannily making hay while the sun shone in a field where there 
was none to say him nay.^ So complete was the success of his 
machinations that by the time Mrs. Vassall reached Cambridge 
again (perhaps hastened by rumors of what had been going on 
in her absence) she found herself as thoroughly dispossessed as 
the veriest ghost. 

Had John Pitts taken his gentle little victim into his confi- 
dence he might have confessed that the game proved hardly worth 
the candle. In 1781 he complained to his brother-in-law that the 
old gentleman's numerous and widely scattered properties were 

ber 5, 1781. (Middlesex Probate, No. 23342, O.S.) The last date seems a clue 
to the time of the real owner's return, actual or impending. 

* In Mass. Archives, 154/257, the personalty before the sale was appraised 
at £29. As to the pictures, see page 13. 

» See page 38. 

• " Jno Pitt, Esq.," a " non-resident," was taxed £5.4.6 for real estate in Cam- 
bridge in 1777. (Mass. Archives, 322/123.) The property is not specified, but 
there is little room for doubt on the question. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 57 

being so mercilessly stripped and at the same time so mercilessly 
taxed that they must be sold. The next year he wrote that the 
scarcity of cash and the enormous taxes were driving folks mad, 
but that much of his father's property had fortunately been got 
rid of. " We have also disposed of Vassalls place at Cambridge 
to ISTathaniel Tracy Esq. for Eight hundred and fifty pounds, 
payable in one year." The price, he added, in view of the tre- 
mendous shrinkage in realty values, was considered very high — 
but so were the risks of collecting it from a purchaser whose 
interests were mainly in shipping.^ 

JSTathaniel Tracy was in effect one of those merchant princes 
whose romantic fortunes and extraordinary idiosyncrasies have 
cast a glamour over the history of the ancient town of Newbury- 
port.^ He had a passion for acquiring fine houses. His pur- 
chases, it is said, extended along the whole Atlantic coast as far 
as Philadelphia.^ Among his Cambridge takings at this period 
were the three hundred acres of the famous " Ten Hills Earm," 
the former seat of the Temples.^ He had already bought the 
John Vassall estate across the road, and seems to have added the 
homestead merely because it was adjacent and in the market. 
But he flew his financial kite too high. His sevenscore merchant- 
men and cruising ships were wrecked or captured, his huge gov- 
ernment contracts were repudiated, and in a few years he conveyed 
his property for the benefit of creditors.^ The old place hung 
in the wind for some time, till finally taken, along with the other 
family seat (a total of over one hundred and forty acres), by 
Andrew Craigie in 1792, " being the late Homestead of Henry 
Vassall, Esquire," ^ 

The active and ingenious Mr. Craigie had an intimate knowl- 
edge of the house already. He had been the first Apothecary 
General of the Continental Army, and as such a constant at- 

* Senator John Pitts to Colonel Warner of Portsmouth, Boston, May 10, 
1782. James Pitts Memorial, 58. For the conveyance Itself, dated April 14, 
1782, see Middlesex Deeds, 83/170. 

* For biography and portrait see J. J. Chirrier, Ould Newiury, 554. Har- 
vard Oradniates' Magazine, xxv, 193. 

* Historic Guide to Cambridge, 101. 

* Middlesex Deeds, 83/171. 

* 1786. Middlesex Deeds, 94/383. 

* Middlesex Deeds, 110/406. 



58 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

tendant at the former medical headquarters — hif^h-priest, so to 
speak, at the shrine of that chest ^ which once concealed a moiety 
of all his malodorous mysteries. He too was now immensely 
wealthy, but for him also the whirligig of time brought in iU 
revenges ; his ambitious projects in Cambridge real estate proved 
premature, and like so many other owners of the old mansion 
he died a bankrupt.^ 

That, to be sure, was long aft^r the Widow Vassall's day. Dur- 
ing her lifetime the beautiful old place seemed doomed to be 
bandied about with true American insouciance — now as a mere 
land speculation, now to round out a deal in neighboring proper- 
ties — and in requital seeming to bring only bad luck to its 
holders. Its character as a homestead was utterly gone. None 
of its transitory owners lived in it. Up to the time it was sold 
by the Pittses, Captain Adams continued his precarious occu- 
pancy.^ If young Pitts and inherent probability are to be trusted, 
he took good care to leave as little as possible behind him. Eoth 
Tracy and Craigie naturally preferred the better preserved 
grandeurs of the newer mansion across the road. The former 
leased the old house to one Fred Geyer, grandson of Governor 
Belcher, who had owned it from 1717 to 1719; the latter to 
Mr. Bossenger Foster, his brother-in-law and a " gentleman of 
leisure," who like Trollett died of the gout.'* 

Its rightful mistress could only look on in silent hopelessness 
as the estate drifted further and further beyond her reach. Un- 

* See page 47. 

* 1819. " Well would it have been for him if his friends could have said to 
him, — ' Thou hast no speculation in thine eyes.' But he had, and a great deal 
of it. His plan was to develop Lechmere's Point, called in my younger days 
' The Pint,' and bring into the market the land he had secured there. The new 
road to ' The Colleges,' now Cambridge Street, the bridge to Boston, still called 
Craigie's bridge, the removal to the ' Pint ' of the Court House and Jail, were 
all parts of this plan. . . . The [turnpike] toll which was to repay the build- 
ing was found represented only by the funeral knell of departed funds." John 
Holmes, " Andrew Craigie." 

' Although the " agents " of the confiscated estates were authorized to lease 
them for only one year, Mr. Mason, in the same way, kept his occupancy of the 
Phips house for a decade. {Historic Guide to Cambridge, 83. See note, page 
54.) Adams's name is repeated as the tenant of the Vassal! house in Mass. 
Archives, 1.54/,382, under the assigned date of 1782. But shortly after the sale 
to Tracy, he is described as " of Stoneham" (1783). Wyman, Genealogies and 
Estates of Charlestown-, i, 10. 

* Paige, History of Cambridge, 547, etc.; Cambridge Hist. Soc. Proc. ix, 7. 



1915.] COL. HENRY YASSALL 59 

like some of the more fortunate and forceful Loyalists who dared 
to return after the war, she had no influential champions to 
cajole or bully the authorities into restoring her property. Her 
immediate male relatives were in England, and for all the good 
they did her might as well have been in an old ladies' home. Her 
brother Isaac Eoyall, " confessedly a gen* of much timidity," was 
dying at Kensington ; her nephew, John Yassall, was " living 
very comfortably " at Clapham, spending his time in grumbling 
and pension-hunting; her brother-in-law, William Vassall, was 
busy writing lachrymose letters bewailing his own lost property 
in Boston. Her former neighbors who had espoused the patriot 
cause had little but hard looks and muttered accusations for any- 
one who could be held even remotely responsible for the sore 
straits in which they now found themselves. 

Outcast and homeless in Cambridge, she took refuge in Boston, 
most likely with the Eussell connections. There she passed the 
wretched remainder of her days, in sad contrast with her earlier 
years. She had been ruthlessly robbed of her property by the 
very government under which she had sought protection. Both 
her own and her husband's families had vanished ; she had neither 
son nor grandson upon whom to lean; her household consisted 
entirely of " elegant females " as dependent as herself. As for 
earning a livelihood, pride forbade what incompetence had already 
made impossible. To poverty and age were superadded the 
anxieties connected with the affairs of her unlucky spouse, whose 
old debts oppressed and distracted her timid nature. In a kind 
of financial nightmare long-forgotten creditors pounced ghoul- 
ishly upon her and pursued her endlessly from court to court. 
It is some comfort to know that in most cases she was able to 
escape their clutches.-^ 

But there was a brighter side to the picture. Her own 
family connections did not entirely desert her. Among the 
exiles in London was a kindly cousin, Joseph Royall, '' late of 

* E.g. Procter v. Yassall (1794), on her notes made in 1767-68. Verdict for 
defendant with costs, aflRrmed on appeal. (Xo. 106852, "Early Court Files," 
Clerk's Office, Supreme Judicial Court, Boston.) She was also sued on her o'svn 
more recent notes by John Semple of Glasgow (1786), William Mackay of 
Boston (1788), etc. A quaint official testimony to her poverty is seen in the 
sheriff's returns on these writs, the usual article attached being " a chair, the 
property of the defent." 



60 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

Jamaica." ^ By some unexplained good fortune he had been 
able to retain from the spoilers more than twenty-five acres of 
land in Dorchester and Milton, with house, bam, etc. These, 
in 1782, he conveyed to her, " in consideration of the affection 
I bear my cousin Penelope Vassall of Boston, widow, and for 
five shillings." She in turn sold them in various parcels as 
fast as she could, eking out on the proceeds her dreary 
existence.^ 

Her greatest benefactor of all was her nephew by marriage, 
Thomas Oliver, now of Bristol, England, a generous little gentle- 
man who had proved a true friend in need to more than one of 
his former neighbors in Cambridge. His family estates in An- 
tigua adjoined those of the Royalls, and although Mrs. Vassal I's 
depreciated share of the latter plantation was in the hands of 
creditors, he was evidently convinced by practical experience that 
the place was capable of successful rehabilitation. As a trustee ^ 
for the Widow, therefore, he seems to have undertaken the re- 
demption of the property, gradually paying off the debts with 
which it was burdened, and (aided by a general improvement of 
local conditions) bringing it to such a pitch of efficiency that by 
1791 her interest in it was valued at £5167. At that date he 
took a formal lease from her for nine years at £350 per annum, 
and in 1795, all the encumbrances having been cleared up, he 
received a conveyance, presumably by way of mortgage.** Although 
it is pretty certain that the greater part of the actual proceeds 
of these transactions had already been advanced to Penelope 
in a long series of anticipatory loans, which had kept her 
from starvation for years past, yet there is reason to believe that, 
thanks to the warm-hearted ex-lieutenant-govemor, the close of 
her life was blessed with something resembling an income, a 

' 1778. Harris, "The New England Royalls," N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, 
xxxix, 354, n. 

' Suffolk Deeds, passim. 

' See page 39. Oliver was noted for his success as a planter. 

* Antigua Records, Lib. V, vol. 5, fol. 86, and Lib. 0, vol. 7, fol. 87. His 
lease of Mrs. Vassall's half was simultaneous with a purchase of Isaac Royall's, 
containing about sixty acres and forty slaves. {Idem, Lib. W, vol. 5, fol. 222.) 
The supposition of a mortgage is necessary in view of the fact that after Mrs. 
Vassall's death her heirs sold the same property to him outright (1806) for 
about £6000. (Idem, Lib. F, vol. 7, fol. 203.) He thus became owner of the 
entire Royall plantation. 
















4 It ,^^| 




1 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 61 

luxury to which she had been unaccustomed for ahnost thirty 

years.-^ 

At last, as the new century dawned, her poor shadow faded 
from the scene, after seventy-six years in a world wherein she 
had found that wealth and beauty and happiness are but shadows 
too. She was buried beside her husband, one dark N'ovember day ^ 
of 1800, in the tomb he built beneath Christ Church. By her 
will,^ feebly scrawled on a bit of note-paper, she left all her estate 
" in possession, remainder or reversion whether in the United 
States or the Island of Antigua," to her " only child Elizabeth 
Kussell of Boston, widow," and appointed her as administratrix. 
But two years later, before the estate had been closed, Mrs. Rus- 
sell was laid beside her parents,^ and the lingering possibility 
that the old Vassall homestead might welcome back its rightful 
occupants was gone forever. 

IV 

'No mention of Henry Vassall or of his tomb would be complete 
without some account of his slaves, Anthony, or " Tony," the 
father and " Darby " the son, already alluded to. Their position 
in Cambridge annals is unique. They afford our only instance 
of well-authenticated cases illustrating the fortunes of ex-slaves 
of the " George Washington's body-servant " type. Tony's in- 
determinate, serio-comic role during the Revolution — half chat- 

^ In 1794, for example, she was able to turn the tables of the law by suing 
George Bacon of Stoekbridge for a loan to him of £12. No. 98194, "Early 
Court Files," Clerk's Office, Supreme Judicial Court, Boston. 

' She died on the 19th. Harris, " The New England Royalls," N. E. Hist. 
Gen. Register, xxxix, 353. 

' Suffolk Probate, No. 21362. 

* Mrs. Russell left no will and apparently no property save the Antigua in- 
terests. Just what these amounted to is hard to say. For several years after 
her death they were so little considered that it was not thought worth while 
even to settle her estate. Then, as has been noted, they were sold by her 
daughters to Oliver, nominally for £6000. Probably to satisfy the conveyancers, 
administration was taken out in 1807, but the papers were so carelessly drawn 
that one cannot but feel they represented very little. Some of the printed forms 
are of the wrong kind, others are erroneously indorsed, and Penelope Vassall is 
described throughout as intestate. (Suffolk Probate, Nos. 21362 and 23010.) 
The bonds were set at $20,000. If this sum, according to the usual rule, was 
twice the value of the estate, we may infer the latter was not more than about 
£2000, which figure may have represented the actual amount paid (or already 
advanced) by Oliver. 



62 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

tel, half independent wage-earner, now qnasi-foundling and 
pauper, now high financier — quaintly suggests the political and 
civic no-man's-land through which, lacking the short cut of an 
authoritative pronunciamento,^ the negroes of New England passed 
on their way from servitude to citizenship. Darby, on the other 
hand, surviving far into the nineteenth century and within living 
memory, forms as it were an ebon link connecting the heroic and 
the modem periods of the town history. Father and son together 
have earned our gratitude, too, for perpetuating between them most 
of the scanty traditions of their " family " that we still possess. 

Tony, according to these traditions,^ was shanghaied from Spain 
at an early age, with the lure of " seeing the world." The par- 
ticular portion of the universe exhibited to him was the island 
of Jamaica. Here he was bought for a coachman by yoimg Harry 
Vassall, and his travels were soon extended to Cambridge. Like 
master, like man. When the Colonel married Penelope Royall, 
his coachman espoused her maid " Coby," ""^ or Cuba (said, in 
spite of her name, to have been a full-blooded African), and the 
happy pair brought up a numerous family.* 

How many compatriots they had in the Vassall household dur- 
ing its heyday is uncertain. The Colonel unquestionably brought 
other slaves with him from Jamaica besides Tony. A number 
were contributed by Mrs. Vassall as a part of her dowry. The 

* The Massachusetts legislators could never quite screw up their courage to 
the point of emancipating the slaves within their jurisdiction. Tlie subject 
was debated "for many years" without result; and even in 1777, when the 
country was ringing with the battle-cry of freedom, and the negroes themselves 
■were petitioning earnestly for recognition, a bill for that purpose was tabled 
on the second reading, while a letter to Congress was prepared. With a sorry 
mixture of timidity and arrogance it stated that the delay was due to a fear 
that action by Massachusetts might have too " extensive influence " on " our 
Brethren in the other Colonies." The letter itself was tabled, and nothing 
more was done. Mass. Archives, 197/125. Historic Magazine, Second Series, 
v, 52. 

' See a manuscript note, apparently taken down by Rev. Dr. Hoppin from 
the statements of Darby about 1855, preserved in the papers of Christ Church. 

' Old Isaac Royall by his will in 1738 had bequeathed to his daughter " one 
Negro Girl called Present and one Negro Woman called Abba & her SLx Chil- 
dren named Robin Coba Walker Nuba Trace & Tobey to hold to my Said 
Daughter & her Heirs forever [!]." Middlesex Probate, 10545, O.S. 

* Several of them can be seen on the inventory of 1760. It is amusing to 
notice that according to cash values therein Tony was scarcely half the man 
his wife was. See Appendix A. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 63 

names of nearly a score are scattered under various dates through 
the scanty manuscripts mentioning such matters. Added to the 
similar establishments of the other rich West India planters of 
the town, they gave pre-revolutionary Cambridge the strange nota- 
bility of a black population nearly three times greater than that 
of any other place with less than 2000 inhabitants in the whole 
province.-' In some of these establishments they were so numer- 
ous that, as at the Koyalls, they had separate " quarters/' after 
the Southern custom. In others, as (traditionally) at the Bor- 
lands, they occupied an extra story of the main house. In many 
churches they were given a special gallery; but just what was 
done with them at Christ Church, which had no galleries, and 
where they must have been particularly in evidence, is not clear. ^ 
On a list ^ of the families of that parish, drawn up by the rector 
in 1763, Colonel Vassall is put down for ten persons. Since 
himself, his wife, and Miss Elizabeth account for only three, we 
conclude that even at this date, when his fortunes were on the 
wane, he had at least seven servants worth mentioning in such a 
connection. And since the expense book already quoted gives no 
clue to any servant receiving regular wages, we may further con- 
clude that all seven were slaves. 

* The special census in 1754 of " Slaves of 16 Years and over," and the 
"lost" general census of 1765, recently rediscovered by Benton, yield the fol- 
lowing comparisons for the towns nearest to Cambridge in size: 

Order In 1754 1765 

Population Slaves Negroes Total 

36th. Sudbury 14 27 1772 

37th. Harwich 14 23 1772 

38th. Attleboro' 10 15 1739 

39th. Cambridge 56 90 1582 

40th. Concord 15 27 1564 

41st. Boxford 8 17 1550 

42nd. Reading 20 34 1537 

A striking exception, due of course to the same causes, is found in the little 
hamlets of 

Lexington 24 44 912 

Medford 34 47 790 

* Some of the largest slaveholders — Borland, Phips, John Vassall — had 
two pews each, and, as many of the side pews were never bought, there would 
be plenty of room for such other slaves as actually attended ; but the religious 
instruction of their servants was scarcely a strong point with the easy-going 
proprietors of " Church Row." 

* Perry, Papers Relating to the Church m Massachiisetts, 502. 



64 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

The sable brethren, despite their lowlj status, occupy a promi- 
nent place in the above expense book. The daily marketing and 
" sundrys," it appears, were usually intrusted to " Tony," " Jack," 
or " Jemmy " ^ — sometimes to " Merryfield." Then there were 
" leather breeches for Jemmy £7 ; " and for his more expansive 
father, " pd. Hall for toneys breeches £8.5." There are also 
such items as " pd. peak ^ for Nursing Cuba £6 ; " and on Christ- 
mas Day, " given servants £5.12.6." 

Entries like these are characteristic of the kindly and paternal 
relations that almost always mitigated the conditions of slavery 
in ISTew England. The indefensible ethics of the system were 
practically obscured by the simple-hearted friendliness that made 
the Africans well-nigh members of the family.^ In many house- 
holds they even ate at their master's table. Indeed William 
Vassall, the Colonel's brother, who owned swarms of negroes 
in Jamaica, had " scruples " as to retaining them in bondage 
at all. He actually consulted Bishop Butler on the question, 
but decided — doubtless with considerable relief — to make no 
change when that famous casuist reassured him " on Scripture 
ground." * 

Strict historical impartiality compels the admission that there 
was another side to the shield. In base return for their humane 
treatment the slaves sometimes displayed rank ingratitude and 
treachery. Morally and intellectually they were for the most 
part mere children, and occasionally exceedingly naughty children. 
The court records ° give us a shocking instance of perversity in 
the Vassall household itself — a crime as black as the perpetrators. 

* Son of Tony and older brother of Darby. 

* Cf. the entry in the interleaved almanac of Rev. Andrew Eliot of Boston : 
" 1744, Mar. 14 Mary Peake came to nurse our Child at 18/ ^ week." 

* Cf. the numerous entries regarding the death of " Negro George," one of 
Isaac Royall's slaves. E.g., " 1776 March, To the Sexton & Bearers for negro 
Creorges Funeral 15/7; To time in Apprizing George's Cloathes & takg Care of 
them 3/-" Middlesex Probate, 19546, Old Series. 

* Dexter to Belknap. Belknap Papers, ii, 384. See also the working-over of 
this famous section of the Belknap correspondence by such authorities as G. H. 
Moore, History of Slavery in Massachusetts, and E. Washburn, Mass. Hist. 8oc. 
Collections, Ifth Series, iv, 333, and Lectures on Early Massachusetts His- 
tory, 193. 

» No. 69278, "Early Court Files," Middlesex "Minute Book" 1752-56, and 
Hecords, Superiour Court of Judicature, vol. " 1752-53 " fol. 126, aJl in Clerk's 
Office, Supreme Judicial Court, Boston. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 65 

The Jurors for the said Lord ye King Upon Their Oath Present 
That William Heley of Cambridge in the County aforesaid Laborer 
and Eobbin ^ of Cambridge aforesd Laborer and Servant of Henry 
Yassell of Cambridge aforesd Esqr. did on ye Ninth of May last at 
Cambridge aforesaid With force and Armes Brake & Enter the Dwell- 
ing house in Cambridge aforesd of William Brattle Esq. and with 
force as aforesd feloniously Take Steal & Carry away Out of ye Same 
hoxxse An Iron Chest and the Money Goods and Chattels hereafter 
mentioned then in the Same Chest being, namely, Six hundred and 
three Spanish Milld Dollars, one half of a Dollar and one Eighth of 
a Dollar, One hundred and Seventy Pieces of Eight, One Large Silver 
Cup, Two Silver Chafing dishes. One Silver Sauce Pan, Three Silver 
Tankards, Nine Silver Porringers, thirteen Large Silver Spoons, One 
Silver Punch Ladle, Twelve Silver Tea Spoons, One pair of Silver 
Tea tongs One Silver Pepper Box, four Silver Salt Salvers, One 
Large Silver Plate, Two Silver Canns, Two Silver Candle-Sticks One 
pair of Silver Snuffers and Snuff Dish two Silver Sweet Meat Spoons, 
One Silver Spout Cup, One Hundred and thirty three Small Pieces 
of Silver Coin Two hundred and Eighty Six Copper half pence, & 
Eight Small Bags being the Goods and Chattels of the said William 
Brattle and altogether of ye Value of three hundred and fifty pounds 
Lawful money against the Peace of ye said Lord the King and the 
Law of this Province in that Case made and Provided. 

Edmd Teowbkidge, Attr Dom Rex. 

[Endorsed] 

This is a True Bill 

Ephraim Jones foreman. 

To this Indictment the said William Heley & Robin severally plead 
guilty 

Attr Saml Winthrop Cler. 

Eobbin Negro on his Examination Taken This 19th of May AD 
1752 before Saml Danforth & E. Trowbridge Esqrs. Says That Last 
Satturday was Seven night abt. Two of ye Clock in ye night Wm. 
Healy & I were Concern'd in Stealing ye Chest of Silver some Time 
Since sd Healey Told me that it was a good Time to get into Coll. 
Brattles House & Get Something. I told him I was afraid by reason 
of ye Small Pox he thereupon Told me That he would go into ye 
house if I would go along with him & I agreeing to it he in ye sd. 
Saturday Night Came & Awaked me out of my Sleep & we went to 
Coll Brattles house & he Went into Coll. Brattles Barn & Got a Ladder 

* Brother of Cuba. See note, page 62. 



66 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

& Set up agt ye Back of Ye house & Got into ye Back Window and 
Got Out ye Chest let it down on ye Eoof of ye Studdy and delivered 
it to me on ye Ladder & I held it there Until he got down & then 
we Carried it Out of ye Gate & Thence Thro' my master Garden into 
ye Cornfield & there we got an ax (which I Fetch) & he Opend it & 
I went away for fear of ye Small Pox & when it was Open'd He Took 
ye Money Out of ye Chest & then Berried ye Chest in ye field where 
it lay with ye Plate in it Until ye next Monday Night When we Took 
ye Plate out & Carried ye Chest away & Berried it in a Ditch in Mr 
Elleries land & we hid both ye money & plate Under My Masters 
Bam where it was found. Dick Brattle gave in ye first Information 
Concerning ye money he Said That there was an Iron Chest in ye 
Closet in his Masters Chamber yt he Supposed was half full of Money 
& yt if Wm. Healey Could Carry him off he Could Get him money 
Enough This Was Soon after Wm. Came to live at my Masters, . . . 
We Told Toney of it & he Crept Under Ye Barn Flower to hide ye 
money ye Next Morning after we Stole it but he never had any part 
of it as I know of but had ye promise of part of it. I took ye money 
This day & put it in ye place whence I Fetched it & tliat is ye Same 
money we Took Out of ye Chest we Took Everything Out of ye 
Chest but some papers Wm Heley proposed (that when we were 
ready to go off) to Take My Masters plate but I told him it would 
not do. No other persons were knowing of ye affair. 

Wm. Heley Says That Dick Brattle Told Bobbin where his Masters 
Gold & Silver was & jt his Masters daughter was agoing to be mar- 
ried & if they did not get it Soon it would not be Worth While to 
meddle With it dick Said there was a Vast deal of Gold & A great 
Many Eings in a Box in his Mist-ers Chamber yt stood on a desk 
there & that there was an Iron Chest in ye Closett that was half full 
of Dollars & Carried Eobbin to see ye Chest yt if they were Enoculated 
he Eobin might get it. Last Saturday Night was seven Night Robin 
& I went into Coll Brattles he went in to ye Barn & got a ladder & 
set up agt ye Back Side of ye house & opened ye Chamber window 
got in & Took Out ye Iron Chest & let it down on ye ladder Eobbin 
bought 3 pair of stockins & Two handkerchief with part of ye money 
one of which Joseph Luke had & also two of ye Dollars Eobbin & 
Toney hid ye Money ye next morning. Eobin Opend ye Chest & 
Took Out ye Money & left ye Plate in ye Chest which he Buried in 
ye Field, Joseph Luke was knowing of ye design of Stealing ye money 
abt 3 weeks Since & it was Agreed That Dick Should have half & 
ye Other was to be divided between Luke Eobin & myself Luke was 
not present when the money was Stole, but Come afterwards & de- 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 67 

manded his part and Said ye reason he did not help was because he 
was drunk Eobbin & I were with Luke yt Evening before ye money 
was Stole & drank togeather in Mr. Reed^s Yard. I stood by Coll 
Brattles dore & by ye Gate (while Eobbin was entring ye house) to 
"Watch & See that he was not discovered & yt no One was a Comeing. 

I took ye Dollars that Were found on me Out of a napkin in Mr. 
Vassells Little house where there was also Some Coppers yt Toney 
Brought from Boston in Exchange for Some of ye Dollars yt were 
stole. The Dollars found on me are part of Coll. Brattles as I sup- 
pose & Believe for Eobbin Told me he had sent some down by Toney 
& He Told me he put them in ye napkin & were part of Coll Brattles 
The Coppers you have are my own & also One of ye Dollars. Our 
design was to go to Cape Breton & from thence to France. 

At his Majesty^s superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize 
and general goal Delivery begun & held at Concord ... 4 August 
1752 . . . 

The Court having considered the Offence of the said Wm Heley 
and Eobin, order that each of them be whipt twenty Stripes upon his 
naked back at the public whiping, and that they pay the sd Wm 
Brattle trible the value of the Goods stolen (the trible being £786) 
the goods return'd (being of the value of £214) to be accounted part; 
and that they pay costs of prosecution standing committed until this 
Sentence be performed. 

JSr.B. in Case the sd Wm Heley & Eobin be unable to make resti- 
tution or pay the trible Damages ordered that the sd Wm Brattle be 
& hereby is impower'd to dispose of the sd Wm Heley in Service to 
any of his Majesty's Subjects for the Term of twenty years, and to 
dispose of the sd Eobin for the Term of his natural Life. 

Since nothing more is heard of either of the culprits it is to 
be supposed that this harsh sentence ^ was duly carried out, and 
that Henry Vassall was thus deprived of another portion of his 
fast-disappearing property. 

Tony himself, although he plainly hovered on the outskirts of 
the crime as a vdlling accessory, seems to have been able to clear 
his reputation and to maintain his confidential relations with his 
master. The tie between them was apparently one of real affec- 

* Cf. the even more terrible punishment, three years later, of two negroes 
who had poisoned their master, and who were executed on Cambridge Common : 
" Mark, a fellow about 30, was handed ; and Phillis, an old creature, was burnt 
to death." Winthrop's Diary, September 18, 1755, quoted in Paige, History of 
Cambridge, 217. 



68 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

tion. They had been together nearly all their lives, and it needs 
but a modicum of imagination to fancy the escapades, equine and 
otherwise, to which the old coachman had been privy. Though 
the Colonel, as we have seen, probably sold off several of his 
slaves during the financial stresses of his later years, yet he stead- 
fastly refused to part with Tony. So too Madame Vassall after 
his death. In her attempts to clear the estate from debts she 
even sold Cuba and the children ^ to young John Vassall across 
the road (though the actual transfer could have been scarcely 
more than nominal), but kept Tony on the old place.^ 

In return the slave exhibited a Casabianca-like fidelity. It 
is not unlikely that when both Vassall families retreated from 
Cambridge he was left in charge of the combined properties.^ At 
all events he hung about the homestead during the eclipse of its 
former splendor like a kind of dusky human penumbra. His 
shadowy presence haimts the Burgopie dinner traditions ^ and 

* As late as a generation ago there was said to be " documentary evidence " 
that in 1722 she showed her " kindness " by paying £20 to free one of Tony's 
children from slavery. (The Cambridge of 1116, 100.) Since the date is ob- 
viously wrong — it should probably be 1772 — we may suspect a further con- 
fusion in the statement and assume that under the circumstances the payment 
was made not by, but to her, and that her object was not so much altruistic as 
to raise much needed funds. 

Although even in the forced settlement of estates the slaves of New England 
were generally treated with consideration, a shocking instance of the opposite 
sort is found in the letters of the Rev. Winwood Serjeant. After the death of 
his father-in-law, the Rev. Arthur Browne of Portsmouth, N. H., the latter's 
old serving-man " Jess [ ?Jesse] " was sold to a planter in the West Indies in 
1774. In a frenzy of despair at the separation from all his lifelong associa- 
tions, the poor creature threw himself overboard on the voyage and perished 
miserably. 

' Where he duly appears, solus, on the inventory of 1778. (See Appendix B.) 
It is instructive to notice that he is now entered somewhat hesitatingly as a 
" negro man," not as a slave, and has no appraised money value as a chattel. 
Neither does he figure on the actual sale-list of the ensuing auction. Plainly 
public opinion was setting in the opposite direction. (See note, page 70.) 

' In August, 1775, a committee appointed to take charge of " such testates 
only as may be found without Occupant or pofsessor," reported that " many of 
them who are left in pofsefsion under pretence of occupants are only negroes 
or servants &c and that in some inftances the Officers Doctors and others be- 
longing to the army have entered upon & taken pofsefsion & make wafte on sd 
Eftates." (Mass. Archives, 1.54/.30.) The language here points immistakably 
to the Vassall houses, one of which was now in full swing as a hospital and 
the other as military headquarters. 

* See post. 




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63 (^ 

FROM AN OLD PLAN 
See page 13 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 69 

appears sharply sillioiietted on the inventory of 1778.^ We also 
glimpse him at work on the confiscated estate of his mistress's 
brother at Medford — work which, in his new status of a paid 
hand, he seems to have valued more highly than his employer did.^ 
" Antony Vaf sail — 1 " is entered, along with " Cato Board- 
man — 1," on the list of polls in Cambridge for 1777, but is 
taxed for neither personalty nor realty. The exemption he had 
cleverly secured by taking up his domicile with his wife and 
children, who " inhabited a small tenement on Mr. John Vassal's 
estate and improved a little spot of land of about one and a half 
acres lying adjacent," ^ and thus contriving to enjoy a freedom 
from rents and taxes as well as from bondage.^ When in 1781 
the final sale of all confiscated Loyalist property was arranged, 
he beheld with dismay the vanishing of his peculiar privileges, 
but determined to take advantage of the anomalous conditions to 
secure if possible a free title to his diminutive domain. Like 
any other full-fledged citizen,' therefore, he petitioned the Legis- 

* See Appendix B. 

" The accounts of Simon Tufts, " Agent for Isaac Royall, Absentee," include: 

1776 Dec. 10 To Toney Mrs. Vassalls Negro £4. 

1777 Jan. 17 To Toney Vassall 4. 
Apr. 15 To Toney Vassall's Ballance 1.12. 
Jul. 28 To Toney Vassall's full 

Ballance by Arbitration 0.6.6 

' " Memorial of Anthony Vassall of Cambridge, a negro man," to the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature, 1781. (Mass. Archives, 231/114—15.) The location was 
evidently " The Farm House East of the Garden," with one and one-half acres 
and 22 rods, valued in the inventory of 1778 at £243. (Middlesex Probate, 
23340, O.S. ) On this inventory Cuba and little Darby are plainly identified as 
'• one negro woman of about 40 years of age, one negro boy alx)ut 8 years," to- 
gether with the most recent arrival of all, " another negro child about three 
months." On reconsideration this last item was struck through with the pen. 
The above are the only entries of the kind. No values are set against them. 
( Cf. note, page 68. ) 

■* Furthermore, he undoubtedly managed to benefit by the kindly action of 
the House of Representatives, which, considering that several refugees " have 
left behind them some of their Families who through Age, Infirmity or other 
Circumstances are imable to provide for their o-\\ti Support," resolved " to 
grant a reasonable Allowance towards the Support & Maintenance of Persons 
in such Circumstances," and to pay " such reasonable Charges as may have 
arisen for boarding & supporting such Persons since the Departure of the 
aforesaid Refugees." (November, 1776.) Mass. Archives, 154/73. 

" Slavery in Massachusetts, impliedly done away with by the Bill of Rights, 
received its coup de grace in 1781 by the decision in the case of " Quork " 



70 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

lature — Laving " a large family of children to maintain, and 
being an old man, and his wife, who was of great help to him, 
heing sick " — to have his squatter's rights confirmed by a good 
title from the state. The friendly hand that drafted the memorial 
(Tony's own chirographical powers were limited to making his 
mark — a bold and handsome capital " T ") added, not without 
effect, " that though dwelling in a land of freedom, both himself 
and his wife have spent almost sixty years of their lives in slavery, 
and that though deprived of what now makes them happy beyond 
expression yet they have ever lived a life of honesty and been 
faithful in their master's service," and expressed the hope " that 
they shall not be denied the sweets of freedom the remainder 
of their days by being reduced to the painful necessity of begging 
for bread." On this quaint appeal the good-natured law-makers, 
perhaps further influenced by the above delicate suggestion that 
the petitioners otherwise might " come on the town," compromised 
by ordering that out of the proceeds of the John Vassall sales 
Tony should be paid the sum of £12, and the same amount an- 
nually thereafter from the public funds. ^ 

Had we not other proofs that Tony Vassall had absorbed no 

Walker v. Jennison. One of the earlier decisions leading up to this conclu- 
sion, it may be of interest to recall, was a test case (Quincy's Reports, 29 
et seq. ) over another Cambridge slave, " James " Lechmere, undoubtedly a 
friend of Tony's. Public opinion in New England, long somnolent on the whole 
subject because of its easy conditions, became aroused during the mid-century; 
and thereafter, John Adams declares, he never knew a jury render a verdict to 
the effect that a man was a slave. He cynically adds, however, that the motives 
for such sentiments were the very reverse of exalted, being, to wit, the selfish 
opposition of the laboring whites, who, as their numbers increased, determined 
to oust their unpaid competitors. (Belknap Papers, ii, 401. See also Wash- 
burn and Moore, already cited, page 64.) As early as 1763, Governor Bernard 
wrote to the Lords of Trade : " The People here are very much tired of Negro 
Servants; and It is generally thought that it would be for the public good to 
difcourage their importation, if it was not at pref«nt very inconfiderable." 
Benton, Early Census Making in Ma-!tsachusett.<), 55. 

^ Mass. Resolves, 1781, January Session, chap. Ixxxi. Such petitions were 
not uncommon. An extraordinarily flowery appeal from one of Isaac Royall's 
slaves, " Belinda," bom on the Rio da Valta, Africa, received equally favorable 
action in 1783. (Mass. Archives, 230/12.) This dusky beldame seems to have 
been a rather notorious source of anxiety to her owner, for in his will he be- 
queathed to his daughter " my Negro Woman Belinda in case she does not 
choose her Freedom; if she does choose her Freedom to have it provided she 
get security that she shall not be a charge to the Town of Medford." Suffolk 
Probate, 85/535. See note, page 71. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 71 

small share of his former master's financial adroitness, we should 
be surprised to find that, after such a pitiable account of his 
poverty, and having failed in his ingenious attempt to acquire 
a home at the public expense, he was able to secure one in the 
usual manner from his own private means. In 1787 he bought 
a house and a quarter of an acre of land ^ from Aaron Hill, brick- 
layer, and four years later a small tract adjoining. In 1793 he 
acquired from John Foxcroft nearly five acres ^ on the other side 
of the road (Massachusetts Avenue). His total outlay for these 
purchases was no less than £152. 

The source of this unexpected wealth is one of the most amaz- 
ing bits of his history. As has been said, he lived during the 
Revolutionary period with his wife and children on the land of 
John Vassall, whose property they were. As long as it was possible 
so to do, he insisted that the cost of their maintenance should 
stand on the same footing with any other outlays for preserving 
the confiscated personalty until it should be sold. Of the correct- 
ness of this he actually succeeded in convincing the " agent," Far- 
rington, on whose accounts appears the extraordinary entry: 

P*^ Anthony Vassall for supporting a ISTegro woman & two Children 
(3 Years,) belonging to the Estate of s*^ [John] Vassall £222.=^ 

Cambridge therefore may boast the singular distinction of having 
possessed a reputable resident who, with neither resources nor 
backers, achieved by perfectly legal means the supposedly impos- 
sible feat of having his cake and eating it too, — enjoying for a 
period of years a commodious dwelling, a garden lot, a devoted 
spouse, and a family establishment, which not only cost him 
nothing, but finally netted him a handsome surplus and a govern- 
ment pension. 

^ Middlesex Deeds, 96/84. The title shows that this was the plot formerly- 
owned by Benjamin Cragbone, tanner, who built thereon, about 1766, one of 
those " little black story and a half houses with gambrel roofs, that saw the 
row that was going on the 19th of April, '75." (John Holmes, " A Cambridge 
Robinson Crusoe," in The City and the Sea, 20.) The location was near the 
corner of the present Massachusetts Avenue and Shepard Street. {The Cam- 
hridge of 1776, 100. See also Paige, History of Cambridge, 519.) 

= Middlesex Deeds, 105/274 and 110/109. 

^ Middlesex Probate, No. 23340, O.S. The transaction was probably modelled 
on the similar charge by the executor of Isaac Royall " for Supporting Belinda 
his aged Negro Servant for 3 Years, £30," but, it will be noted, on an enor- 
mously inflated capitalization. 



72 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

On his own manor thus ludicrously procured, with his truly 
valuable helpmeet, " two pigs, a horse, cart and tackling, a boat- 
hook, etc.," ^ the old Loyalist coachman dwelt for some thirty 
years, plying the trade of a " farrier " ^ in an intermittent and 
desultory fashion which he more than atoned for by the admirable 
regularity with which he drew his pension. The following pastoral 
document ^ gives a good example of his craft. That word, indeed, 
may be taken with a double meaning, since we have here addi- 
tional evidence that Tony's commercial methods were of the most 
advanced order and included the thoroughly modern system of 
overcharging for everything. 

Will^i Winthrop Esq"- 

ti^l791 To Antony Vafsall D"" 

To keeps Your Horfe on hay from 

^HO Novr to ^^13 Jany 1792 being 



I 



63 days at 1/6 ^ day 4.14.6 
To triming said Horfe 3. 
Docking s^ Horfe 1.6 


£4.19.0 


after mature Confideration of the above 
Acct it appears to me that there is due 
to Antony Vafgell £2.10.6 

Eben« Stedman 
[Endorsed] 
Tony Vafsall's Acco* 
p^ Jan. 12, 1793 





January 12 1793 Rec'^ pavment 
of the within Acco* which is 
in full of all debts dues and 
demands whatever 

his 
Antony "[" Yassall 
Test. mark 

Jno. Alfoed Mason 

* Inventory of 1811. Middlesex Probate, No. 23335, Old Series. 

* He ia designated in the records both &s " farrier " and as " lalwurer," and 
in one case (probably most to his liking) receives the sonorous appellation of 
" yeoman." 

* Preserved in a scrap-book at the Cambridge Public Library. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 73 

Like most of his race, Tony was never averse to abandoning 
the grosser forms of toil for the fine art of conversation ; and he 
delighted to expound to the younger generation the glories of the 
good old times before the war. He was famous for his grandilo- 
quent descriptions of the ancient splendors of " the family " and 
his own Apollo-like magnificence on the box seat of the chariot 
when they drove to church on Sundays or into Boston for some 
stately function. Such reminiscences were of course strongly col- 
ored by the native foibles of the narrator; it is doubtless, for 
example, due to his vivid African imagination that the old Vassall 
house for generations afterwards enjoyed the reputation of being 
" ha'nted." ^ 

In September of 1811, at a fabulous age,^ Anthony Vassall 
shuffled off this earthly stage, leaving the faithful Cuba as his 
chief mourner.^ Her tears, nevertheless, were not so blinding 
as to make her lose sight of the " pension." Since by its terms 
it was not payable to her, she lost no time in applying afresh to 
the Great and General Court, " at a very advanced period of life 
and destitute ^f other regular means of support," praying the 
legislators " to take pity on her humble state, and seeing the 
premises, to grant the continuance of the said pension of £12 
during the remnant of her life." To enforce her claim she 
piquantly pointed out that the original annuity was to be paid 
out of the proceeds of the estate of John Vassall, " on her 
your petitioner's account, and for her support; as she was, 
prior to the Revolution, and at the time of the confiscation, the 

* The Cambridge of 1776, 100. Such stories naturally lost nothing in the 
lively fancies of the many young folks who subsequently occupied the mansion. 
Persons now living can testify to mysterious nocturnal rustlings in the great 
chamber where Church Avas confined (see post) ; the negro boy who was 
pricked to death by Burgoyne's officers (see post) " walked" in one of the attic 
rooms; the ghost of old Governor Belcher (the owner from 1717 to 1719) 
could be heard tiptoeing along the halls in his squeaky riding-boots ; on stormy 
nights the balls of spectral skittle-players reverberated along the roof. 

' Given in Cambridge Vital Records, ii, 772, as ninety-eight. 

^ Middlesex Probate, No. 23335, O.S. At or soon after this date his heirs 
seem to have been his daughter Catherine (evidently named for his former 
master's granddaughter, Miss Russell ) ; Abigail ( Hill ) , widow of James or 
"Jemmy"; Eliza Flagg, daughter of Cyrus; Flora, widow of "Bristol" 
Miranda (compare the John Miranda mentioned in Paige, 450) ; and Darby, 
described as " the only son." Dorinda, mentioned in the inventory of 1769, 
had died in 1784. Cambridge Vital Records, ii, 772. 



74 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

domestic slave and dependent of the said John Vassall, and her 
said husband was not." Through the good offices of Lemuel 
Shaw, the Legislature resolved to accede to her <request and 
continue her little dole, now represented by $40, " until further 
order of this Court." ^ The last clause evinced an almost need- 
less precaution. The old crone claimed her pittance but one year 
more.^ 

Darby, the best remembered child of the couple, was born, if 
his own statement^ is to be relied on, in May of 1769, beneath 
the roof of John Vassall, who had already purchased the mother 
Cuba, and thus become entitled to her offspring. At a tender age 
he was " given " to George Reed of South Woburn, a recent con- 
vert to Episcopalianism and one of the group who from that dis- 
tant township occasionally attended Christ Church, Cambridge.'* 
That worthy patriot, when the Revolution broke out, threw to 
the winds his half-assimilated Church of England principles, joined 
the provincial forces, marched to Bunker Hill, was there stricken 
by " a surfeit or heat," and in a few days expired.*^ 

* Mass. Resolves of 1811-12, chap, cliv, and accompanying papers: "Peti- 
tion of Cuby Vassall," approved Feb. 28, 1812 by her fellow-townsman Gov. 
Gerry. See Judge Shaw's reminiscences of the matter in Mass. Hist. Sodety'a 
Proceedings, 1st Series, iv, 66. 

' Her age is given as seventy-eight. As in her husband's case, consumption 
was the immediate cause of death. {Cambridge Vital Records, ii, 772.) Both 
were buried from the First Parish, of which they were doubtless members, 
Christ Church at this period being closed. 

' Hoppin MS. ( see note, page 62 ) . Cf . Darby's own deposition in Suffolk 
Deeds, 387/122. 

* See Sewall, History of Woburn, 500. The Reeds were considerable slave- 
holders (Johnson, Woburn Deaths, 154) and made a specialty of getting their 
stock very young. In a case parallel to Darby's, " Venus " was given to 
Swithin Reed while she was so tiny that she was brought from Boston in a 
saddlebag. (Curtis, Ye Olde Meeting House, 61.) A "nigger baby" in fact, 
among the well-to-do of those days, was a favorite and frequent gift. Many 
slaveholders regarded their property's offspring as troublesome incumbrances 
and " gave them away like puppies," or, in default of ready recipients, adver- 
tised them with a cash bonus to the taker. (Moore, History of Slavery in 
Ma^s., 57, quoting Belknap. See also Washburn, ubi supra, 216.) As late a3 
1779 " Cato," son of " Violet," was sold at the age of six. See Littleton v. 
Tuttle, a note to the case of Winchendon v. Hatfield (4 Mass. Reports, 128), 
relating to the fortunes of " Edom London," who in nineteen years changed 
masters no less than eleven times, besides twice enlisting in the Continental 
Army. 

» Sewall, History of Woburn, 573, n. 



1915.] COL. HENRY YASSALL 75 

Little Barby thereupon wandered back to Cambridge, only to 
find his first master as effectually beyond recall as his second. 
To fill the gap a third was unexpectedly offered in no less a per- 
sonage than George Washington himself. For when the General 
arrived at his permanent headquarters in the abandoned John 
Yassall house, he found the youngster (so the story runs) dis- 
consolately swinging on the gate. The Virginia planter, who had 
handled slaves all his life, good-naturedly proposed to take the 
boy into his service. What must have been his astonishment when 
the pickaninny coolly inquired as to the rate of compensation. 
Such a left-handed manifestation of the new and much vaunt-ed 
" spirit of liberty " was not at all to the taste of the Commander- 
in-chief, and his emphatic remarks on the subject caused Darby 
Yassall to declare to the day of his death that " General Washing- 
ton was no gentleman, to expect a boy to work without wages." ^ 

Further details of his youthful days are lacking, except his own 
statement that he was brought up a Congregationalist — not sur- 
prising in view of the almost total extinction of the doctrines of 
England, religious as well as political, in his neighborhood. Fol- 
lowing the general seaward migration of the negroes after the 
Eevolution, he left his parents in Cambridge and drifted into 
Boston. In the metropolis he soon did sufficiently well to buy, 
with his brother Cyrus, a little house on May Street.^ He mar- 
ried Lucy Holland in 1802, and had several children.^ Inheriting, 
as it were, a certain gentility in his humble station, he was em- 
ployed by some of the best old families of Boston — the Shaws, 
the Curtises, etc. — and plainly won their friendship and esteem.'* 
His prosperity enabled him, after the death of his father Tony, 
to buy out the interests of all the other heirs to the Cambridge 

* "Sfew England Hist. Gen. Register, xxv, 44, where by obvious error tbe 
enecdote is assigned to old Tony. 

' 1796. Suffolk Deeds, 183/79 et passim. He is therein described as a 
"■ laborer." His other brother, James, meantime became a " hairdresser." 
May Street is now Revere Street. 

^ Harris, Vassals of Neio England, 13, n. Boston Birth Records, 1810- 
181^9, passim. 

* In 1824 he was living in the household of the wealthy Samuel Brown of 
Boston, who had evidently befriended him for years, and who by will not only 
left him wearing apparel, fuel and provisions, but also released him from a 
mortgage of two thousand dollars on the May Street property, given in 1807 to 
cover the expense of erecting a " New Brick mansion house " thereon. Suffolk 
Probate, 123/615. Suffolk Deeds, 220/276. 



76 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

property, at a cost of $620,^ and in 1827 to build another house 
on the land,^ 

The death of his wife the following year probably marks the 
turning of his good fortune's tide. One by one, also, his children 
dropped away, in almost every case from consumption. Brother 
Cyrus had long ago passed over Jordan.^ As old age crept on, 
Darby fell upon evil times, was forced first to mortgage and then 
to sell his little freeholds,* and finally to resort to the charity of 
the Brattle Square Church in Boston, of which he had long been 
a member. There he became a picturesque and rather noted 
figure. Scrupulously observing the conventions of the olden time, 
Sunday by Sunday he toiled up to the abandoned slaves' gallery, 
or " nigger loft," over the organ, until his pathetic solitude proved 
too much for the tender-hearted pastor, Dr. Lothrop, and he was 
given a comfortable seat near the pulpit. His greatest pleasure 
was a formal call upon the minister, who always received him as 
defereiitially as if he had been a stranger of distinction.* 

The old fellow's most cherished possession was what he termed 
his " pass," dated 1843 and signed by Miss Catherine Russell,® the 
granddaughter of Henry Vassall. This grisly document, which 
would have delighted the heart of " Old Mortality," guaranteed 
him admission to no worldly dignity or mundane privilege, but 
to a place after death in the vault beside the mouldering bones of 
the proud old " family " of which he still counted himself a mem- 
ber. He would frequently make a Sunday pilgrimage to Christ 
Church to assure himself that his precious prospective domicile 
was in statu quo, and when present he always attended the Com- 

' December 24, 1813. Middlesex Probate, 23335, Old Series. 

» Middlesex Deeds. 270/411. 

' Boston Death Records, passim, where are also set down, at this period, 
a considerable number of deaths of other " colored people " bearing the Vassall 
patronymic — doubtless the remnants of the households of John, William, and 
other relatives of Colonel Henry. See also Cambridge Vital Records, ii, 772. 

* Middlesex Deeds. 294/248," etc. 

° Memoir of Lothrop, by Dr. A. P. Peabody. Mass. Bist. 8oc. Proceedings, 
2d Series, iii, 169. ' 

* She died in 1847 and was buried in the family tomb under Christ Church. 
Harris, Vassals of Nev England, 22. A letter from this bioprapher, dated 
1862 and preserved in the church files, gives, along with other details of this 
matter, a copy of the " pass." It extended the privilege also to the members 
of Darby's family, consisting, at its date, of a daughter and two grandchildren. 
All apparently predeceased him. 



1915.] COL. HENRY VASSALL 77 

munion. One of the most touching sights of the mid-century in 
Cambridge was to see this octogenarian representative of " the 
constant service of the antique world " deferentially waiting till 
all the white " quality " had partaken, and then creeping forward 
in lonely humility to receive the Sacrament. 

'T is ended now, the sacred feast ; 

Yet on the chancel stair 
For whom awaits the white-robed priest? 

Who still remains to share 
The broken body of his Lord, 

To drink the crimson tide 
For us to-day as freely poured 

As erst from Jesus' side? 

'T is he, our brother — in the view 

Of Him who died to free 
His children, of whatever hue, 

From sin's captivity. 
Not to the children's board he comes, 

Nor drinks the children's cup, 
But meekly feeds him on the crumbs 

The dogs may gather up. 

Ne'er may the Ethiop's dusky skin 

A lighter shade attain. 
But One can cleanse the heart within 

From sin's corroding stain. 
Foremost on earth we taste the bliss 

Our Banquet here supplies. 
Nor know what station shall be his 

When feasting in the skies. 

Samuel Batcheldee, Jr., circa 1856. 

Finally, at the venerable age of ninety-two, Darby Vassall was 
accorded the honor he had so long anticipated, and under circum- 
stances of solemnity and publicity which he never could have dared 
to picture in his fondest dreams. On the afternoon of October 15, 
1861, the old slave was duly interred in the Vassall tomb. The 
service took place precisely one hundred years from the day the 
church was formally dedicated under the auspices of his father's 
master, and in the midst of the elaborate observances marking 
that centennial ; during the first feverish excitement, too, of that 



78 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

titanic struggle that was to abolish all slavery. Such a combina- 
tion of circumstances made the poor negro's funeral a memorable 
occasion.^ Among the notable gathering were such well-known 
medical men as Morrill Wyman and Oliver Wendell Holmes, for 
the opportunity was taken to examine and identify the remains 
already in the vault.^ Soon afterward, by order of the city au- 
thorities, it was permanently sealed,^ and with it the last chapter 
in the story of Henry Vassall. 

[The concluding portion of this paper, on certain uses of the Vassall house 
during the Revolution, will appear in the next volume of these Publications.} 

* See the Boston Traveller, October 16, 1861; Cambridge Chronicle, October 
19, 1861, etc. 

* " The vault contained nine coflBns. The upper one of a row of three on the 
north side contained as indicated by the plate the remains of Catherine Graves 
Russell, died Sep. 5, 1847. The one below it, somewhat decayed, contained the 
remains of a woman, supposed to be the wife of Colonel Vassall, died in 1800. 
The lower coflBn held the remains of a man, doubtless Colonel Vassall, its ap- 
pearance and position seeming to indicate its priority in the vault. On the 
south side were the coffins of four young children and two adults. Of the four, 
all were considerably broken and decayed. Scarcely any remains were per- 
ceivable — merely a few detached bones. The largest might have been that of 
a child two years old, and was in the best preservation. The one that seemed 
to be the oldest was marked with nail-heads ' E.R., born & died Jan. 27, 
1770 ' . . . In this coffin were noticed a number of cherry stones, the kernels 
eaten out by some mouse which had carried them thither, secure of a safe re- 
treat. The upper of the two large coffins on which these small ones rested 
contained the bones of a man over forty-five years of age. The lower limbs 
were covered thick with hay, seeming to indicate transportation. No clue was 
obtained to the person of the occupant. [Undoubtedly Lieutenant Brown. See 
post.] The remains in the lower coffin were supposed to be those of Mrs. 
Russell, wife of Dr. Charles Russell, died in 1802." Harris, Vassalls of New 
England, 13, n. 

' After discussing the question at several meetings, the parish, to avoid 
possible legal complications with the descendants of the owners of the tomb, 
petitioned the Cambridge aldermen, and obtained from them an order dated 
April 5, 1865, that it should be " permanently closed." Tlie entrance at the 
west end was bricked up, a slate slab placed against it bearing the original 
proprietor's name ( misspelled ) , the stone steps which led down to it were 
removed, and the slope filled in level with the rest of the cellar floor. Parish 
Records, vol. 2, passim, especially page 294. 



1915,] COL. HENEY VASSALL 79 



APPENDIX A 

[From Middlesex Probate Files, No. 2jjj6, Old Series] 

Inventory of the Real & Perfonnall Eftate belonging to Henry 
Vafsall late of Cambridge Esq' Deceas'd — 

House Lands Stables &c ^1000 o o 

In the Best Room 

I Large pier Glafs £^. a Sconce Ditto 6.6.8 2 Large & 6 fmall 

Chairs £1 Jappan Tea Table iz/ 14188 

3 Family Pictures £i. Nine Enameld Cups & Saucers 6 Coffe 

Cups Bowl &c. on the Tea Table £1 400 

In the Clofitt 

II China Dishes 27 Enameld plates 4 Burnt China 6 Bowls & 
plates 6 Images 2 China Mugs 2 Glafs Cups 5 Beer Glafs 
I Salver i pair Branch Candlefticks i Doz"^ Wash Hand 
Glafses 6 Saucers pick' d 23 Glafs Bucketts 15 Wine Glafses 

a Doz° Jelly Ditto i Tray 2 Decanter 9 7 8 

In the Boffatt 

3 China Bowls 1 3 China plates 2 Dishes China Tray 7 Cups 

& Saucers Wash Hand Bafon Glafs Salver 488 

Turkey Carpett 168 

In the Blue Room 

1 Sconce _;^5 2 large & 4 fmall Chairs ^2.8 i Tea Table be- 
longs to Mrs. Rufsell ;!^i. 10 8 18 o 

I Round Table 6/8 Brafs And Irons 10/ 0168 

In the Clofitt 

40 plates fome broke of Different China ;^2.i3.4 a Doz° & 

yi Blue & White China ^1.12 454 

4 pickled plates 5/ 2 Delph Fruit Basketts 4/ a Stone Ditto 4/ 

3 Delph punch Bowls 8/ 4 China 3 Broke 17/4 .... i 18 4 

Glafses in y« Clofitt £1 6.8 Baskett 5/ 3 Scollop Shells 4/ 

3 China Dishes one broke 12/ 278 

In the Boffatt 

1 Doz" China plates ;^i.6.8 punch Bowl 13/4 Stone Turine & 

Dish 8/ Stone pickled pott 6/ a 14 o 

I Doz" Large & Small Blue & White China Dishes £z Glafs in 

y« Boffatt 18/ Jappan Salver 2/8 Grotto 4/ 348 



80 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

In the Keeping Room 

2 Sconce Glafses £i.6.% Marble Table £^.l^.^■ One large & 

one fmall mehogny Table £z 800 

a Round Straw Bottom'd Chairs 6/8 Eight Old Leather Bottom'd 

Chairs ^1.4 Mr Sherly picture 2/8 i 13 4 

Rum Case 10/ And Irons Shovel & Tongs 14/8 pair of Large 

Tongs 6/8 profpective Glafs 8/ i 19 4 

Old Carpit 4/ Old Plate & Knife Baskett with 6 Buck, handled 

Knives & forks 6/ o 10 o 

In the Clofttt 

9 Stone Dishes 8/ Doz^ Stone plates 6/ Jelly Glafses 1/ Ten 

Wine Glafses & Baskett 6/8 Earthen pitcher 1/ 128 

parcel Broken Glafs & China mended 4/ Tobacco Tongs /8 

hatchet & mallet for Sugar /6 fmall Scive /2 054 

Glafs musturd pott 1/4 Glafs for Vinegar & Oyl /4 3 Salts 1/4 

Cork puller /4 Glafs Candleftick & Delph Bowl 1/6 ... o 410 

Cloaths Brush 1/ fmall Decanter 2/ 14 China Plates £1 . . 130 

In the Little Entry 
6 Leather Bucketts i Glafs Lanthorn ^1.15 i 15 o 

In the Little Room 

Old Sconce Glafs ;^i.i6 Doz"* Candle moulds £1 three Guns 

£-^ filver hiked fword £z 7160 

Mourning Sword 5/ Hanger 18/ Red Housing 8/ small 

Dish 8/ Checquer Board 3/ 220 

Case of Mathamatical Inftruments 8/ Shaving Box & Rafors 6/ 

Tools & Broken thing in y^ Clofitt 8/ 120 

In the Kitchen 

Copper Stew pan £1./^ Dutch Oven £1 Four large & fmall Bell 

mettled Skillets / 1. 10 3 14 o 

Old Copper Ladle 4/ Fish Kittle Old 1 2/ Two Copper potts for 

meat ;^2.io Four Iron 2 large 2 fmall 6/ 3 12 o 

2 Iron Skillets 2/ Two Iron Dish Kittles 1/4 Iron Tea Kittle 

one old Copper one 6/ three Grind Irons 10/ 0194 

2 Frying pans 8/ Toast Iron 1/4 Chaffing Dish 1/ three And 

Irons 8/ Fender /8 Tongs & peal 4/ 130 

Jack ;^2.8 2 large fpits 8/ small Ditto 1/ Six Broken Brafs 

Candlefticks 7/ Flower Box 1/ Lamp 3/ 380 

Coffa pott 5/ three Tin Dish & One plate Cover 4/ Tin Graters 

1/ Scales & Weights £1 itoo 

plate Rack 3/ Old Table 3/ Tin Fender 12/ Six Old Straw 

bottom'd Chairs /8 Iron Spider 2/ Rolingpin 1/ . . . . 190 

Marble morter 15/ Seven Trammels 7/ Copper Fountain ^1.8 

Eight Cloaths Basketts 18/ 380 

Tin Ginger bread & other pans 3/6 2 Trays & Meal Trough 3/ 

Meal Chest 4/ 2 pair Flat Irons Old i / o 1 1 6 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 81 

Iron Box & 3 Grates 1/6 4 Old Chairs 1/ And Irons & Tongs 

6/ Old Bedftead & Table leaves 12/ 106 

In The Marble Chamber 

Blue Harrateen Bed & Curtains £z.Z Easy Chairs ^1.16 fix 

fetting Chairs £/^. i6 900 

Drefsing Table belongs to M" Rufsell 

Drefsing Glafs ^1.4 three Cushings for Windows 12/ 3 Glafs 

Lamps ;^ 1. 10 2 Carpitts i6/ 420 

Feather Bed Bolfter & pillows 53 @ 1/6 is ^4 Bedftead 6/ 

8 pair Blanketts ;^4.6.8 8128 

Id 

4RugS;^i.io Small Feather Bed 60 ^36.8 4 16 8 

In the Green Chamber 

Green Harrateen Bed & Curtains ^1.8 Old Easy Chair 6/ fix 

fetting Chairs ;^2. 8 Drefsing Table 16/ 4 18 o 

Drefsing Glafs 1 8/ Feather Bed Bolfter & pillows 60 ;^ 3. 12 Bed- 
ftead £i fmall Table 5/ And Irons 4/ 5190 

In the Cader Chamber 

Green Harrateen Bed & Curtains Old 12/ 2 mehogony Desks 

;^4. 10 Medicine Box 12/ Table ^1.4 6180 

Feather Bed Bolfter & pillows 60 ^4 Mattrafs Bed 12/ Bedftead 

12/ Large Trunk 12/ 3 old Chairs 8/ 640 

6 Old Carpetts 12/ portmantle Trunk 10/ fmall Scales & 

Weights 16/ Counterpin £i.\l 320 

Wash Hand Bafon & Chamber pott 001 

In the Little Chamber 

Id 

Old Linnin Bed & Curtains 8/ Bed Bolfter & pillows 50 ^3.6.8 

Bedftead 6/ 2 Old Chairs 2/ Trunk 12/ 41+8 

AUarbaster Image 1/6 fmall Looking Glafs 4/ Great Chair 8/ 

6 Cushions 9/ 4 ftone Chamber potts 1/ 136 

In the Entry Chamber 
Small Bed Bolfter & pillow ^2.5 Bedftead 6/ 2 11 o 

In the Kitchen Chamber 

Bedftead 12/ 2 Feather Beds Bolfters i pillow \\x £6- 10 

Old Desk & Book Case ^1. 10 Old Desk 6/ 8 18 o 

Old Drefsing Table 10/ 4 old Chairs 1/4 fmall Looking Glafs 

3/ pair Dogs 3/ Old Tongs & Shovel 2/8 Warming pan 5/ 150 

In the Entry 
Mehogony Table ;^ 1. 4 34 Great & fmall pictures ;^i. 14 ... 2 18 o 

On the Stair Case 
33 Great & fmall Glafs pictures _;^2. 8 5 1 Great & fmall pictures ;^6 880 



82 



THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 



In the Chamber Entry 
a 8 Great & fmall pictures ;^ 1. 12.6 

^^ Damask Table Cloath @, io/8 is ;^ii.i4.8 i6 Old & Other 
Damask Napkins @ ^/ \s £^i.ii 

12 Diaper Napkins @ i/6 is i8/ 12 Old Diaper Table Cloaths 
_^i.io 9 pair old Holland Sheets @ 13/4 is ;^6 

2 pair of fmall Holland Sheets @ 12/ is ;^i.4 3 pair & one Sheet 
old @ 16/ is ;^2. 16 

2 pair of New Cotton Linnen Sheats @ 10/ is ;^i 2 pair & fmall 
Ditto @, 8/4 is ;^ 1. 5 

3 pair of Old Cotton Linnin Ditto ;^i. 10 24 old pillow Cafes 8/ . 

Best pewter loS @ 1/6 15^7.17.6 Old pewter 70 @ 1/ is ^3. 10 

4 Brafs Kittles 90 ;^4. 17.2 

Crimfon Velvett Furnature for Horse £6 Green Ditto Cloath old 

;^i.4 Saddle 18/ 

In the Stable 

pair ^Horses Old ;^i2 Coach with Harnefs ^^12 Chariott ^50 

Chaise with Harnefs ^5.6.8 

Old Harnefs 3/ Curricles Carrage 12/ Chaise Body 12/ Old 

Chaise Body 6/ Old Curricle Harnefs 6/ 

2 pair of Old HolRers 1/6 Garden Enjine Hofe ;,^i.4 Old 

Wheels for y* Coach ;^i.4 

pair Joints 1/ Crofs Cutt Saw 8/ 2 Old Saddles 4/ Old 

Saddle 4/ 

In the Celler 

Large Copper £,Z 2 Iron Trivetts 9/ 6 Old Wash Tubs 3/ 
Dumb Betty 1/ 2 Cyder Barr^s 4/ fundry Cract & Broke 
ftone potts on y^ Stair way 5/ i Grofs of Bottles in forts ^1.6.8 

1 Case of Large Bottles ;^i. 12 52 Bottles Great & fmall with Old 
Cafes 15/ 3 Juggs & Jarr 13/ 

Copper Funnel! ;^i.io Whole & Broken Juggs 4' 9 Doz" & 

Yj, Quart Bottles £\ 

14 Old Cask ^1.4 Sand Bin 8/ 

Servants 

Tony /^i3. 6. 8 Dick;^6.i3.4 James ^40 

Dorrenda ^12 Auber [? Cuba] ^20 

Servants Beds & Beiiing ^i. 12 

Rolling Stone & Garden Tools ;^i.4 6 Old Chairs in y« Summer 
House 8/ 

Plate 

2 Cans 2 fait fpoons 24 Ounces Tankerd 34 2 Butler Cups 
16^ fmall Salver 5 Candlefticks 21 »^ CofFa pott 46 Tea- 
pott 19 4 Salts 10^ Cream pott 5^ Tea Kittle 43 (land 



1 II 6 

[368 
8 8 o 

400 

2 5 o 
I 18 o 

II 7 6 
4 17 2 



?9 6 8 
I 19 o 
296 
0170 



I II 8 
300 



214 o 
I 12 o 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 83 

for Ditto z'i^ Chaffing Dish 24^ Chaffing Dish 21^ 2 por- 
ringers 19X ^ fpoons 14 Salver 16 3 Large & 1 Small 
fpoon 1714^ punch ftrainer 5 Snuffers & Stand 2 fmall fait 
fpoons Tea Finger 11 }4 ftand with Casters 61^ i Doz'* 
Tea fpoons & ftrainer 6 fmall Ditto pepper Box punch 
Ladle large fpoon 15°^ porringer 4 fpoons ff i Doz 
Defert fpoons & Forks 32 Handles for Defert Knives 15 

I Doz Great fpoons y^ Handles for Knives & Forks 76^ 

Marrowr fpoon i Ounc & )4 
The Amount of the whole plate is Six Hundred Ounces @ 

6/8 oz is 200 c o 

Case for Knives & Forks ^3.6,8 2 Glafs Cruett & Salts 6/ Case 

for ys Defert Knives & Forks ^i. 10 528 

Case of Defert Knives & Forks ^1.8 Calabash Tipt with Silver 3/ 

Gold Whater ^13.6.8 5 Labels 4/ 15 1 8 

I pair of Horse Nitts £2, i Hammock ^1.8 Carpett ;^i.io 

Old Knive & Fork 7 Ounces @ 6/8 ^2.6.6 746 



^1671 



Books 1 



Chambers Diet: 2 Vols £x Bailey Ditto 6/8 Hist, of Religion 

2 Vols 18/ Tacitus Eng^ 2 Vols 8/ 3128 

Pridieux Connect: 2 Vol 18/ Trial of y® Earl of Macclesfield 2/ 

Tillotsons Sermons 3 vol 12/ 1120 

Survey of y^ Globe 1/4 BentivoUio & Urinia province Laws 

Tempery Ditto Grotius Countefs pembroke 4/ .... . 054 

Bible 6/ Collect of Voyages 4 Vols, ^i Quincy Dispensatory 4/ 

Method with y® Deist 2/ Gents Inftrucf 2/ 1140 

Hist of W™ Stevens 1/6 5 Vol Clarendon Hist, of y^ Rebellion 

first mifsing 5/ Lock on Human Underftanding 8/ . . . . o 14 6 

Vindication of y^ Deffence of Xanity 2 Vol 6/8 Short way Teach- 
ing y« Languages /8 5 Vols Roman His by Eachad 5/ . . . 0124 
pridiaux Life of Mahomet 1/ Bulls Sermons 4 Vols 4/ Bland 

Disapline 1/ Hist Revolution of portugal 1/6 066 

Hamilton Acct of East Ind: 2 Vol 3/ Life of Marlbro 2 Vol 12/ 

1.3. & 4 Vol Rollin BellLett 5/ Dio Xian Rit 12/ ... 120 

Nature Displayd 3 Vol 8/ Hist of y« Turks 4 Vol 12/ Shaftbury 

Char: 3 Vol 12/ Hist of China 4 Vol 12/ 240 

The Prater. 1/6 Tatler 4 Vol 8/ Conduct of Married Life 3/4 

Modern Travels 4 Vol 10/8 Swift Works 13 Vol ^i . . . 236 

Lydia 4 Vol 4/ Robinson Crufoe 2 Vol 2/ Comical Hist 2 Vol. 

2/8 Jofhua Truman 2 Vol 2/8 0114 

Mirza & Fatima 1/4 Friends 2 Vol 4/ Betfy Thoughtlefs 4 Vol 

4/ S' Chas Goodville 2 Vol 3/ Hap Orph'i 2/8 .... o 15 o 

* Several of these books were contributed by Mrs. Vassall from the much 
smaller library of her father, Isaac Royall, Senior. See his inventory of 1741, 
Middlesex Probate, 19545, Old Series, where the prices rule far higher — but 
partly because then figured in Old Tenor. Henry Vassall added to his shelves 
from time to time: " 1758 Jany 9th. Cash pd Books £9.10." 



84 THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [Jan. 

New Attalantis 4 Vol 8/ Mifs Cadiero 4 Vol 5/ Don Quixote 

5 Vol 5/ Cafsandra 4 Vol 5/ Vade Mecom 1/ 140 

Life of M' Anderfon 4/ Whichcrly plays 3/ Bishop of London 

Sermons 2 Vol 5/ Du Clos Maners of y* Age 4/ .... o 16 o 

Valet 2 Vol 4/8 Memors of Man of Quality 2 Vol 3/ West 

DefFence of y® Refurrection 2/ Shakfpear Work 1 0/ 8 Vol . 0198 

Turkish Spy 7 Vol 14/ Spct [? Spectator] 8 Vol £1 Guardian 

2 Vol 5/ Rollan Anch* Hist 10 Vol £1.4. 330 

Free Holder 1/6 Anti Galilean 3/ Travel of Cyrus 2/ Cleo- 
patra 8 Vol 16/ Stage Coach 1/ 136 

Betfy Barns 4/8 Conver" Moral Enter: 1/6 Fortunate Country 

Maid 2 Vol 4/8 Life of Cleavland 9/4 102 

M" Bhen plays 4 Vol 6/ Agreable Uglinefs 1/ Hist of Pilgram 

2/8 Venetian Tales I / Ecepd Gaz' 1/ o ii 8 

Miramega 2/7 Gays Fables 3/ Cha^ Osbems Esq' 1/6 Tele- 

machus 3/ Tales of y^ Faries 8/ o 1 8 i 

Love Letters 1/4 Hayward Nov^ 4 Vol 4/ Otway plays 4/ 

W™ Bingfield 2/ 0114 

Lord Landown Works 3 Vol 5/ Hist of Scot Family /6 Rigester 

1756 /6 Chyne English Malady 4/ Roderick Random 3 Vol. 

3/ o 13 o 

True Merit True Happinefs 2 Vol 4/ Female Quixote 2 Vol 4/8 

Periian Tales 3 Vol 6/ Hist of Young Lady of Distin 2 vol 4/ o 18 8 

Jofeph Andrews 2 Vol 4/ Lovers 1/ Peter Wilkins 2 Vol 5/ 

Lucy Villiers 2 Vol 5/ Amelia 4 Vol 10/ Farqhur play 2 Vol 

4/ 190 

Modem Adventures 2 Vol 5/ i. 2 4 & 5 vol of David 

Simple 11/ Chinefe Tales 2d vol 1/ Dicky Gotham & Doll 

Clod 2d Vol 2/ 0190 

Advent of Count Fathom i* Vol 2/ Congreave plays 3 Vol 4/ 

I tTol of Perfian Letters 1/4 Ditto of Telemichus 3/ ... o 10 4 

Adventures of Capt Greenland 4 Vol 9/4 i. & 3 Vol. of 

Pervian Tales 2/8 Select Novals 9 Vol 6/ Humerest i* Vol. 1/ o 19 o 

it Vol of mogul Tales 1/ Ditto of Select Novels 1/ 2d vol of 

popes Works 1/ Scotch Marine /6 2d Vol of y* Parish Girl 4/ 076 

lack Conner 2 Vol 4/ Harriet Stewart 2 Vol 4/ 2d Vol Female 

Foundling 1/6 i & 2 Vol Le Bell Afsembly 2/8 .... o 12 2 

1 & 3 Vol Religious Philosopher 4/ 2d Vol of Ditto 1/ it Vol 

of Canterbury Tales 2/ Bradley Compleat Body Husbandry 3/ c 10 o 

it Vol of Mortames Art of Hu:ibandry 1/ Ditto of Luis 14th 2/ 

7th Vol Life of Queen Ann 2/ Bradly Ancht Husbandry 2/ 070 

it vol of Modern Husbandry 1/ 2d vol Hist of Jews 1/ 2d vol 

Epistle for Ladys 2/ Life of St Ignatius /z Shirlock on 

Death 1/ 052 

Compleat French Master 1/ Hist of y^ World 1/ prefent ftate 

of Britain 1/ Ditto 1/ Telemachus French /6 046 

Crofflin Anamadverfions on y« Talmud /i Adventures of Gile 

Bias 4 Vol. 5/ 1.2.3. & 6 Vo' Arabian Nights Enter 4/ . . 091 

Adventures of M"^ Lovel 2/ Leonora Female Quixote & Otway 

broken Voll 2/ 040 

/1705 II 3 




HENRY VASSALL'S BOOKPLATE 
(Slightly enlarged) 

This very scarce plate is almost unknown to collectors. It was discovered in 
the " library " of Christ Church. Boston, in a copy of the rare work Defence of 
the Christian Rerelation, printed at London in 174S, " to be dilperfed in His Maj- 
esty's Colonics & Iflaiuis in America." 

See page 35, n. 



1915.] COL. HENEY VASSALL 85 

We the Subscribers Appointed by the Hon^'ie Sam" Danforth have Appriz'd the 
Above Inventory belonging to the ^d Henry Vafsall Esqr Decea'd 

Septr. 8. 1769. D' Ruflel (one of the admin") Henry Prentice 

exhibited the foregoing Inventory on Oath Eben" Stedman 

Sepf jo'ti- 1769 M'3 Penelope Vaffel the other Ebenezr Bradish 

adminifF made oath to the fame Inventory — all fworn before the Judge 

S. Danforth J. prob. 



APPENDIX B 

[From Middlesex Prohatt Files, No. 23342, Old Series\ 

Middlefex fs 
An Inventory of the Perfonal Eftate whereof Penelope Vafsall Late 
of Cambridge In the County of Middlefex who fled from her Habi- 
tation to the Enemies of this State: was Seisd in the aforsd County, 
taken by us the Subscribers Appointed By the Hon^i John Winthrop 
Efq Judge of Probate of wills &c for Said County as the Same was 
Shewn us by William How appointed Agent to the Same Eftate by 
the aforsd Judge 

to one Chariot ;^ioo one Iron Barr 37/ loi " 17 " o 

one pair Large handirons 52/ one Small Do 34/ 4 " 6 " o 

one trivit 58/ Some old hamis 24/ 4 " 2 " o 

one pair Shears 12/ oldiron 36/ one Box 24/ 3 " 12 " o 

one wicker Bafket 12/ one hamper with lumber 10/ . . . . i " 2 " o 

one tinn fender 60/ two old Safhes £1^ 8 " o " o 

three bee hives 30/ two Buckets 36/ 3 " 6 " o 

five Canvis pictures 90/ fifteen Large Do. ^6.15 11 " 5 " o 

Eighteen D° N° 2 72/ thirteen D° N° 3 40/ 5 " 12 " o 

Sixteen Small Do 40/ four Glafs D° 48/ 4 " 8 " o 

nineteen gilt D° 76/ one Glafs Lanthom 45 6 " i " o 

one marble table £^ one plate grate 48/ 11 " 8 " o 

two Large Canifters 12/ part of two Cariges ^24 24 " 12 " o 

one Churn 18/ one Large picture 20/ i " 18 " o 

one negro man Named toney 

Cambridge June ye 24. 1778 Aaron Hill 

W" Gam AGS 
Tho« Barrett 

Middlesex ii Jany 1779 Exhibited upon Oath by the Agent William Howb. 

before me J Winthrop J. Prob — 



H 77 78 




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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent; Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date; 

\^,^{ 1998 

PRESERVATION TECHNOt-OGIES. LP 
1 1 1 Thomson ParV Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 1 
(724)779-2111 



